There were also fears that the rating agencies might downgrade Enron's debt despite the Dynegy deal.
Today, those investors like to blame the banks and the rating agencies for their roles.
The rating agencies say they were never supposed to substitute for investors' own due diligence.
Over the weekend, the Obama administration did its best to discredit the rating agencies.
Was this administration actively sending credit agencies, the rating agencies, information about possibilities for an agreement?
It has been revealed that the rating agencies were paid by the companies they rated.
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However, not everyone agrees that the rating agencies' verdicts are the best barometer of economic health.
The rating agencies like the states to keep a balance of at least 5% of spending.
They think they have more information than the rating agencies about those to whom they lend.
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CDOs, and the rating agencies that gave them their initial high ratings, are feeling defensive.
Despite a recent credit downgrade by the rating agencies, Sprint remains the most likely buyer for Clearwire.
Amazingly, the rating agencies somehow maintained their status, and their ability to move markets, after the dust settled.
The rating agencies say they will only do that once Vivendi has a credible business strategy in place.
Policy makers have already tried improving the performance of the rating agencies with the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006.
Those who sold those products to investors are using the rating agencies as excuses for not revealing the risk.
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But the rating agencies, paid for their appraisals by the seller not the buyer, were compromised from the start.
Split-rated bonds are simply bonds that are rated differently by the rating agencies.
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Congress and regulators are after the rating agencies for not doing their jobs.
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The rating agencies say that the deteriorating credit quality of those trying to finance adventurous takeovers could spell trouble.
Rather than standing back and observing this from the sidelines, the rating agencies got involved in structuring these products.
If they fail to follow through on their downgrade warnings, the rating agencies will lose whatever credibility they have left.
Moreover, by tightening up registration and regulation of the rating agencies, Mr McCreevy may be moving in the wrong direction.
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Americans will benefit most when few people care how the rating agencies operate, because their judgments won't be that important.
Every crisis begets finger-pointing, and the blame now is falling on the rating agencies that helped structure these exotic instruments.
The problem is obvious, that the rating agencies are paid their fees by the same firms whose products they are rating.
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The new standard removes prior protections, leaving the rating agencies with the same standard of liability as other players in financial markets.
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The rating agencies are obviously independent and it is up to them.
Just how unlikely investors are to get their money back can be gauged by the default statistics that the rating agencies produce.
Many analysts, including the rating agencies that gave the mortgage debt high ratings, also badly miscalculated the impact of the mortgage crisis.
We could ask the rating agencies to give up attempting to produce absolute measures of credit quality and instead focus on providing only relative measures.
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