Ohio Sues Rating Firms For Losses In Funds.

[elleng]

'Already facing a spate of private lawsuits, the legal troubles of the country’s largest credit rating agencies deepened on Friday when the attorney general of Ohio sued Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, claiming that they had cost state retirement and pension funds some $457 million by approving high-risk Wall Street securities that went bust in the financial collapse.

The case could test whether the agencies’ ratings are constitutionally protected as a form of free speech.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/business/21ratings.html?hpw

[bbinacan]

1. Is this a joke?

Bitch, bitch, moan, moan, complain-----SUE!

[Jim Sagle]

2. No, you're the one who's joking - even if you don't know it.

Those ratings agencies had a universally upheld quasi-governmental image as truly impartial arbiters of the value of complex financial instruments. They betrayed that image, and thereby misled countless investors including pension funds, into bankruptcy.

In a just world, the masterminds of these agencies would already be serving long prison terms, and their apologists would be summarily booted from any Internet board where they made light of this immensely serious massive fraud.

[Sherman A1]

4. Agreed

I hope that the other 49 states will join the suit and shut these rascals down.

[bbinacan]

10. "and their apologists would be summarily booted from any Internet board "

Good grief. :eyes:

[Seldona]

3. Are you saying the ratings companies had nothing to do with this?

What does the bb stand for? Blatant bullshit?

[jotsy]

5. These agencies testified before congress a few months back, not a one of 'em credible.

Any time a rating agency looked to lower a grade, money was offered, accepted and said grade remained or at times even enhanced, though we're told one had nothing to do with the other.

I don't believe credit ratings haven't been about who is safe to lend to in a long time. They are used as an excuse to charge more. It's never made sense to me that part of how my auto insurance rate is calculated involves my credit rating and now we learn the ratings in and of themselves are for sale to the affluent so why are their findings still considered as gospel?

The viability of a once spirited public is being systematically dismantled and the citizenry must address how to stand without the costly infrastructure of indebtedness to a group who's already robbing us blind six ways to Sunday.

[harkadog]

6. Where are your links to those allegations?

[jotsy]

7. Bloomberg, September 2008, "Race to the Bottom" by Elliot Blair Smith.

Not sure how to set up a link, you might also check out a place called Pro Publica, search credit rating agencies and have yourself a happy little hunt!

[harkadog]

8. I read the article

There is no allegation of bribery as your post implied. There is no doubt there was abuse and I don't think anyone denies that.

[jotsy]

9. Article clearly stated rating agencies collected as much as three times the usual rate

for top grades on the riskiest derivatives. As for abuse, I think in a setting like this, one doesn't cross that line without expecting to gain something. Perhaps you are content to continue accepting confusion as an explanation for collusion, I'm not.