Please let us learn instead and not believe more in the pure blessings of using credit rating agencies

Sir, Gillian Tett ends her “Confidence in CDO rating system showing signs of strain”, June 15, with “Let us hope that the rating agencies and regulators can find a way to make us true believers again” though what we really should be learning is not to believe more in the possibility of a system whereby through the use of some few designated rating agencies we think we can help to direct the world’s financial flows without setting it up to some dramatic systemic risks. Would not using credit rating agencies to more bank crisis and other problems? Perhaps, but that way we would at least vent the system and not allow for the systemic accumulation of risks that can only build up to a truly horrendous explosion. By the way since in these discussions there is mostly a mention of the credit rating agencies when they miss by giving a too high rating, let me also remind you of their equally intrinsic and real cost when they give a too low rating. Any credit not given because of a bad rating, could in, sys fact be the best opportunity missed the world has ever seen.