[GovernmentShrinker]

The scary thing is that lenders and other capital providers are still paying attention to the rating agencies' meaningless ratings and rating changes. I'm a banker with a large international financial institution and would honestly give more credence to Britney Spears' opinion on the creditworthiness of rated loans, bond issues, and bond insurers, than I would to the ratings assigned by Moody's/Fitch/S&P. Ambac has been a walking corpse for months and just yesterday Moody's finally breaks down and says it "might" downgrade the corpse -- from triple A! Given that about 99% of bond insurers' business REQUIRES them to have a AAA rating, there are really only two ratings for bond insurers: AAA and DEAD. Take a look at Ambac's one year stock chart and decide which one of those ratings applies.

[Palladin]

GS, is it time yet to take our money out of the banks and put it back under the mattress?

I wish I understood these things.

[garbanzo]

Did you happen to catch Jim Cramer’s rant on CNBC yesterday morning... basically saying the same thing you’re saying - all these guys at the rating agencies are all part of the same club as the people who run the companies they’re rating and that these ratings are essentially worthless.

[2banana]

The scary thing is that lenders and other capital providers are still paying attention to the rating agencies' meaningless ratings and rating changes. I'm a banker with a large international financial institution and would honestly give more credence to Britney Spears' opinion on the creditworthiness of rated loans, bond issues, and bond insurers, than I would to the ratings assigned by Moody's/Fitch/S&P.

Fitch is the most honest of the bunch...