Give me someone without a conflict of interest and by definition he is a no one.
What I really find surprising is how the financial sector regulators have been able to convince themselves to believe that their delegated authorities, the credit rating agencies, are in fact able to act free of conflict of interests. Might it be the regulators are so full of it they do not even notice?
I have conflicts of interest at all times (hum, even while sleeping) and what I found is important is to learn to keep them in check… reasonably.