Credit-Rating Firms Led Investors Astray

You wouldn't know it looking at the NYT web-site, but this is the front page headline story in the NYT print edition today.

The story begins telling us that complaints by Countrywide Financial were effective in getting Moody's to revise the ratings of securities issued by that company, with no new material information.

“These errors make us look either incompetent at credit analysis or like we sold our soul to the devil for revenue, or a little bit of both.” — A Moody’s managing director responding anonymously to an internal management survey, September 2007.