More stars for a more stable triple A?

Sir when the president of Standard & Poor’s, Deven Sharma writes that the credit “ratings should not be used for purposes for which they were never designed”, like “hardwiring” prudential regulations around them, we can only ask… why did he wait so long to say that? Investors require consistency when it comes to credit ratings” October 2.

And when Sharma mentions the investment institutions want “credit ratings to be relatively stable” and that he intends to satisfy such demand by an “initial lower rating” of any security “more prone to a sharp downgrade in periods of economic stress”, we can only think of a chef developing some ratings a la carte, in order to earn more stars on some Michelin guide.

Doing a little sleeping with the enemy, aren’t we?

Though it is clear that the faulty ratings issued by the credit rating generated more real losses than what 50 Madoffs could have done it is amazing to see FT giving so much voice to the President of Standard & Poor’s to defend his business model “Re-evaluating and rebuilding a more useful rating system”, March 12, while silencing so much of the fundamental criticism against the creation of an oligopoly in the market of risk information, namely the systemic risks that this in itself generates. Doing a little sleeping with the enemy aren’t we?