It is we that have to learn the lesson from the rating agencies handling of Enron.

Sir, Dr Len Rosenthal in his letter “Ratings need to learn lessons from Enron”, June 27, gives many good recommendations for how the rating agencies could perform better their jobs and avoid the risks of being “hoodwinked”, but he makes the fundamental mistake to presume that the Enron’s of this world are detectable and avoidable.

This could be since as he belongs to a Department of Finance of a college he might have a vested interest in selling the gospel that all risks can be derivated away. I on the contrary find it not so hard to accept having to live with the risks of the Enron’s since as individual risks they could all be digestible but what I really find unacceptable is the systemic accumulation and or hiding of the risks that is embedded in having to follow the advice from some very few credit rating agencies, and this no matter how many courses they take with Dr Rosenthal.