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摘要

IN TIMES OF financial plenty credit ratings go largely unnoticed. In downturns, though, they attract more scrutiny-and are often found wanting. The dotcom crash of 2000-01 exposed ratings of some erstwhile corporate stars, including Enron, as nonsense. Worse was to come in the financial crisis of 2007-09, which the three big rating agencies-Moody's, s&p and Fitch-helped cause by trading reputation for profit and giving implausibly high marks to se-curitised mortgages. An official report on the crisis branded the agencies "essential cogs in the wheel of financial destruction".