If we were holding journalists, economists, meteorologists (or climate change specialists) accountable for their forecasts, we would need to build many new prisons. People need to be realistic about the capacity of rating agencies to predict credit defaults. All they can do is express a judgement on the credit worthiness of something from the outside.<p>What I found working with them is that the new regulations are rather making the process more error prone. Rating agencies are now paranoid about any communication with financial institutions and you just can&#x27;t pick up the phone and call them. It leads to them going away, making their own assumptions and interpretations and making it very easy for them to make a mistake that cannot be spotted by the people who understand the numbers.