Poor, Moody’s, and Fitch rated as safe in the boom years turned out to be lethally dangerous. And the problem isn’t limited to such financial products: with issuers of other debt securities choosing and compensating the firms that rate them, the agencies still have strong incentives to reciprocate with good ratings.
人们普遍认为评级机构辜负了投资者的信任。 标准普尔、穆迪和惠誉在繁荣时期确定为安全的许多金融产品后来却被证明是极端危险的。 问题还不仅仅局限在这些金融产品： 在其他债券发行人自主选择并支付评级机构酬劳的情况下，评级机构仍然具有以高分来回报主顾的强烈动机。