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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: ratings agencies

ratings agencies stories: 5 news summaries

Wall Street Cleverly Carves Up Bad Assets

So cleverly, in fact,
that regulators are getting worried

Oct 1, 09 7:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - Wall Street’s financial magicians have come up with a way to transform toxic assets into shiny new ones. In popular new deals called “re-remics,” a sour mortgage-backed security is split in two, one containing all the good mortgages, the other all the bad, the Wall Street ... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Wall Street • accounting • mortgage backed securities • ratings agencies • re-remic

Rating Agency Again Judges USA AAA

Uncle Sam's debt holds steady despite 'negative pressure'

May 27, 09 11:28 AM CDT
(Newser) - Moody’s today reassured investors that the United States government won’t lose its AAA credit rating…yet. Last week Standard & Poor warned that it might soon drop Britain’s debt rating, sparking panic that other governments could follow. A Moody’s VP said the US’ rating is the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
United States • Standard and Poor • Moody's • Triple-A credit rating • credit rating • ratings agencies

(Newser) - Until the day Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, all three of the major credit-ratings agencies swore its debt was safe, rating it A or better. They rated AIG at AA. And they gave 75% of the $3.2 trillion of subprime mortgage securities iron-clad AAA ratings. Moody’s, S&P and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
subprime mortgages • Lehman Brothers • AIG • mortgage backed securities • Standard and Poor • Moody's • Triple-A credit rating • credit rating • ratings agencies • Fitch Ratings

(Newser) - Credit-ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service today released what it calls “The Bottom Rung,” a list of 283 companies—15% of all those it tracks—it says are most likely to default on their debts. Moody’s has been widely lambasted for failing to catch the credit problems... More »

MORE ABOUT:
bankruptcy • Eastman Kodak • default • Moody's • credit rating • ratings agencies

OPINION

Madoff Scam Proves Wall St. Incompetence

Drastic regs needed, and be sure financial firms will resist

Dec 17, 08 2:20 PM CST
(Newser) - If the Bernard Madoff scandal teaches us anything, it’s that Wall Street’s masters “aren’t just too clever by half,” writes Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post, “they’re not clever at all.” They didn’t just get “bamboozled by a con artist,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
fraud • accounting firm • Steven Pearlstein • Bernard Madoff • ratings agencies

5 Stories


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