It's nice to see that they confirmed what everyone knew. I just hope they don't have any new surprise reports such as that prestigious accounting firms have helped cook books for their clients because that's the easiest way to hold onto a lucrative contract. There are only so many surprises that one can handle after all. Who could have guessed because they all went to the prestigious schools, lived in the right neighborhoods, wore nice suits and even ties. Ties, for goodness sakes! Shocking, shocking, shocking. Please get me a glass of water and a cold towel for my forehead.
A probe of the credit-rating industry by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that firms used outdated models, were influenced by their clients and waited too long to downgrade investments as the collapse in the housing market intensified in the year before the financial crisis.
The probe shows that some employees at the credit-rating companies were hungry for fees and apparently willing to compromise objective analysis of the quality of investments, according to material released Thursday.
One e-mail suggests that a Moody's employee explicitly agreed to negotiate ratings for investments based on a promise of future fees.
