[ExI] AIG Bail out

[Brian Atkins]

John K Clark wrote:
> As much as I'd like point at government as the only cause of this
> economic mess I cannot in all honesty do so. I place a very large
> part of the blame on rating agencies like Moody's and
> Standard & Poor.
> 

Government interference in the ratings business is actually at the root of the 
problem. If you look into the history of the ratings agencies business you will 
find they effectively operate as a cartel/monopoly enforced by the SEC since 
1975. There is no way such poor ratings performance would be tolerated in a free 
market without this enforced lack of competition.

If you want good ratings you need to abolish this government-enforced cartel 
system and also go back to the way it was prior to 1975 where BUYERS of debt 
paid for the ratings instead of today's system where SELLERS of debt purchase 
ratings (and obviously apply pressure for a higher rating for their money spent).

So anyway we can put this all down to government interference too, unintended 
side effects, etc. More at the bottom of this old post:

<http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2007/09/time-to-break-up-credit-rating-cartel.html>
-- 
Brian Atkins
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
http://www.singinst.org/