Dylan Ratigan: S&P Needs to Take Responsibilty
Holy snikes!
Dylan Ratigan goes postal on Jay Dhru, head of financial institutions ratings at Standard & Poor’s, on the recent downgrades in the financial sector.
When CNBC calls out the guys who are in part responsible for this mess, it is delicious television, and wonderful journalism.
Its a shame there aren’t more moments like this:
Click for video
Can you imagine what the producers were screaming in Ratigan’s ear during the Interview?
At one point he presses his question and then says he’ll shut up. The way Maria signed off suggests the Producers were screaming at him–then gave him a time out. Just look at his expression as they close out the interview — that’s how a 6-year-old looks when they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar! I guess only Cramer gets to go postal on the network.
The lessons here simple: Don’t rate garbage Triple A, and don’t piss off Dylan Ratigan!
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September 18th, 2008 at 11:53 am
@don’t piss off Dylan Ratigan!
LMAO!!
September 18th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Too little, too late.
Where were all of these hard-hitting questions even a year ago?
September 18th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Finally, SOME folks on CNBC DOING THEIR JOBS. What a novel concept. Could be a contrarian indicator of a real bottom. Ratigan is generally OK (not great) and while I don’t like Maria “I scored a zero on Jeopardy”, her chuckling in the background at Dylan admittedly made me chuckle a bit.
Party’s over for everyone, folks! Well, maybe not the bankruptcy attorneys…..
September 18th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Too little, too late.
Where were all of these hard-hitting questions even a year ago?
Posted by: Neal | Sep 18, 2008 11:54:58 AM
Agreed. CNBC just AS BAD as the ratings agencies. Everyone was on the gravy train before. Now they’re all stabbing each other in the back. I just love Wall St.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Don’t get your panties in a bunch.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
This guy Dhru is about as direct and honest as the average politician, and confers as much financial insight as the average stockbroker.
When the next bull market begins, however, everyone will forget.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
We are now in the “Days of Posturing”
“Well, YOU were asleep at the switch!”
No! YOU hand your hand in the cookie jar!
“Why you dissembling bastard, if it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be in this mess!”
“But YOU said it was all contained!”
It was the SEC’s and Congress’ job and they failed COMPLETELY!
“Clinton did it!”
September 18th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
i wasn’t impressed by this at all; and actually found it distasteful. i completely agree with neal and jeff. these cnbc “reporters” were not on the forefront of this crisis and have done nothing to help individual investors or even educate the populace.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I’ll take Bloomberg TV over the Kens and Barbies @ CNBC any day personally. I find their breathless and multi-split-screen-ESPN -like coverage geared towards the soap opera audience.
They use to be good. Now they suck.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I gotta say, Ratigan is growing on me.
He needs to trim down the extended preamble to a lot of his questions, and I still can’t stand the hammy dimestore-Letterman shtick he brings to Fast Money, but while Kneale and Caruso-Cabrera continue to make asses of themselves, Ratigan and Liesman and others have started to bring a harder-hitting skepticism to their work, and it is much appreciated.
Too little, too late to head off any meaningful amount of pain, perhaps, but an honest effort at building trust with the viewership is nothing to scoff at.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Agreed Brion. dylan is one of the few on cnbc that is pretty decent, but what he did yesterday was pretty classless. to beat on this guy after the fact was very easy to do and looked desperate.
And Maria is absolutely clueless; she should have some more work done on that ugly mug.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
And Maria is absolutely clueless; she should have some more work done on that ugly mug.
Posted by: joe p | Sep 18, 2008 12:21:00 PM
One can only fight the phenomenon called “aging” for so long. More work means looking more like Priscilla Presley every day. Time to pack it in, Maria.
Agree that Dylan’s attack was a bit classless. At this point the horses have left the barn, but I am getting a hearty chuckle at all of the back-stabbing going on.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
bbbbut… shouldn’t Dylan and Maria have been wearing their Dow 14000 hats?
September 18th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I’ve had the tube on recently and I must say, he has gotten some moxie. If only CNBC would have done that further. But, to the contrary, they are complicit in this. I could actually turn the same question on Dylan and CNBC and ask it of them. CNBC is a sycophantic organization bent on maximizing its revenue and ad spending at the expense of investors. But, I do like Dylan. One of the few since Ensana left.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
This guy Dhru is about as direct and honest as the average politician, and confers as much financial insight as the average stockbroker.
More or less honest than Lawrence Yun?
September 18th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I watched the interview and CNBC. Immediately after it was over, I was channel surfing, and came across Fox Business Channel. Who do I see on there, the same guy. Obviously, Standard & Poor’s was sending that guy out to do some damage control. Didn’t work on CNBC, did it?
September 18th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Having worked with him personally, I can say I like Dylan, he’s smart, he’s a sincerely good guy and he has some first hand knowledge of the markets.
He is not, however, an effective prosecutor. And he doesn’t do the adversarial interview well. Most of all he lost his cool and that kind of emotional involvement is what made him one of the cheerleaders before the charade was exposed. Dylan’s probably a great barometer for what many market participants are feeling, shock, anger and looking for someone to blame.
It’s interesting to watch the lynch mob forming, I think that’s the first time I ever saw an anchor yelling at a guest. I think that qualifies as an early sign of capitulation.
But the posters above are right, where was the skepticism a year ago? Dylan and many of the better fin journalists are sincere perma-bulls and while that’s much better than being a cynical liar or boot licking sycophant like some people Kudlowites who shall go un-named, I wish Doug ‘the hammer’ Krizner were still on air. He was the gold standard back in my days at BTV.
What’s amazing is that the new gold standard’s are independent commentators like Barry, Yves and Nouriel.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Having worked with him personally, I can say I like Dylan, he’s smart, he’s a sincerely good guy and he has some first hand knowledge of the markets.
He is not, however, an effective prosecutor. And he doesn’t do the adversarial interview well. Most of all he lost his cool and that kind of emotional involvement is what made him one of the cheerleaders before the charade was exposed. Dylan’s probably a great barometer for what many market participants are feeling, shock, anger and looking for someone to blame.
It’s interesting to watch the lynch mob forming, I think that’s the first time I ever saw an anchor yelling at a guest. I think that qualifies as an early sign of capitulation.
But the posters above are right, where was the skepticism a year ago? Dylan and many of the better fin journalists are sincere perma-bulls and while that’s much better than being a cynical liar or boot licking sycophant like some people Kudlowites who shall go un-named, I wish Doug ‘the hammer’ Krizner were still on air. He was the gold standard back in my days at BTV.
What’s amazing is that the new gold standard’s are independent commentators like Barry, Yves and Nouriel.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Hi Barry. You forgot to give a hat tip to Teresa Lo for posting the video to her blog first. I’m sure she would appreciate it.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
It’s a shame there aren’t more moments like this -
September 18th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I watched this interview yesterday! It was a very uncomfortable moment! LOL
September 18th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
What’s the big deal? I think Mr.Dhru just wasn’t prepared for the interview. My advice to him before he goes to talk with Mr. Ratigan again is to do the following:
He might do to his dentist and have a root canal. When that is over, he says to himself, not so bad, maybe I’m ready for Dillon….
He might go to the zoo, drop by the grizzly cage, and have his ass eaten out….when that is over, he might say to himself, not so bad, maybe I’m ready for Dillon…
and so on…
Bruce in Tennessee
September 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Speaking of eating humble pie, Ben Stein admitting he was wrong in exchange with Doug Kass. Could we be near a bottom?
A few seem to be coming to their senses — in certain cases from surprising corners. For example, here is an email exchange I had with Ben Stein (for whom I now have newfound respect) last night:
Ben Stein: I am bound to say after all this time that you understood this so much better than I did, especially the mentality on Wall Street that would lead to this that it is profoundly humbling.
Doug Kass: Thank you, Ben. My Grandma Koufax would call you a “mensch.” My constant proddings were not meant to be ad hominem attacks against you but rather to deliver my analysis and underscore my sense of foreboding that was based on my analysis of the abuses and egregious risk taken in the credit, housing and derivatives markets.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Brian,
I missed the dude’s appearance on FBC? Any hard hitting questions there? Or just questions about his vacation plans?
September 18th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Barry, just giving thanks for all work you’ve done in the last few weeks. It is really nice to be able to get a sense of what everybody else is thinking in nearly real time.
This is one crazy time we are living in.
Thanks again.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
“The fundamentals don’t matter.” That is the crux of the bizarre role the rating agencies have taken on themselves. If the cost of the CDS on a company’s debt goes up, that is enough for S&P and Moody’s to warn of a downgrade. Once again they are following the markets, not actually providing any information.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Thanks BR, was Macke running the teleprompter?
September 18th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Barry – you do indeed ROCK. This site is now may favorite site, period. Has been an incredible source of information and the truth for me. Great commenters as well (even the ones I don’t agree with, well some of them!…..
Just a fabulous site overall.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Vote with your eyeballs! The more time we talk about faith-based investors, er, pundits, on these dopey outlets means less mind share for Bloomberg, which is far better (so I’m told and somewhat believe from anecdotal evidence). Less mind share, fewer eyeballs for Bloomberg means less advertising revenue for them and less subsequent investment into producing more of the same (or better) quality product. By continuing to watch this other crap, you perpetuate their mediocrity.
I’ll watch clips of Barry and a few other gems, when he posts them here. That’s it.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Everybody knows that for all of my antipathy toward CNBC, I like Dylan Ratigan:
http://cnbcsucks.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/i-like-dylan-ratigan/
Anytime you need a wingman during your exploits, pal, I am there.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Cuomo announcement on short selling… (WSJ on line)
September 18th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
also, just saw this headline:
British financial regulator says it is temporarily banning short-selling …
September 18th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Britain’s Financial Services Authority on Thursday announced the unprecedented move of banning short-selling and forbidding any increase in new positions. Also, disclosure will be required on all positions of over 0.25% of a stock. The ban is due to remain in force until Jan. 16, 2009, but it will be reviewed in 30 days. “While we still regard short-selling as a legitimate investment technique in normal market conditions, the current extreme circumstances have given rise to disorderly markets. As a result, we have taken this decisive action, after careful consideration, to protect the fundamental integrity and quality of markets and to guard against further instability in the financial sector,” said Hecton Sants, chief executive of the FSA.
Getting crazy out there.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
All this outrage seems a little late.
When do I get to interview Maria about
her and her networks role in creating this mess.
Geez…talk about a day late and a dollar short
September 18th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Britain bans ALL short selling (Marketwatch)…????
September 18th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Loved this this interview. He definitely lost his cool, but these S&P guys really do need to be shot.
Thinking about this interview….I wonder what “Stage of Grieving” we’re at….I thot we were getting closer to the “depression” and “acceptance” phase, but it still seems like we’re around the second and third stage of “anger” and “bargaining”.
- AT
September 18th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Every time somewhat threatens to break the chummy facade of competence at CNBC, it’s Maria’s job to laugh it off, “Oh, you guys!!!” She’s all ambition and zero talent. Would have made a natural for the Bush administration — except for the fact that she would have to take a $7 gazillion pay cut. I read somewhere that she was the one who got Cramer his gig on CNBC. How fitting. Unfortunately, she’s so ignorant, she’ll never know how terrible she is.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
This is all very good theater, and I guess you could say better late than never, but…the real deal would be to see a direct interview of CNBC, which has been complicit in this mess since day one. The mute button stays on.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
So it’s come to this – SEC banning all short selling on financial stocks until January?!? Did I hear that right?
September 18th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
AT said: “but it still seems like we’re around the second and third stage of “anger” and “bargaining”
actually we’re still at the stage of “manipulation” – at least in the UK, and who knows what Cuomo will have to say?
Hmm.. ban all shorting? Is that LEGAL? Now markets can only EVER go up! It’s Kudlow and Cramer heaven….!!
WTF?
September 18th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Was it just me, or did Dhru seem to want to say, “look, our role and what we got paid for, was to tell people what they wanted to hear!”
September 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
2 things come to mind after watching this interview:
1. Neither anchor seems to know the difference between a CDS and a CDO.
2. CNBC was hardly the voice of caution or reason during the buildup of global financial leverage. It’s as if they’re blaming a suspected arsonist while the building is burning when they themselves ran advertisements for the accelerant that was used. Please…
September 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Take cover, guys. Bazooka time. I was afraid of this. The lawyers must already be preparing their case for the Supreme Court.
It was a good day to be long after all, better to be lucky than good I suppose. It’s just that this group in power is at its most dangerous when in a corner.
Karen -gold still zooming and now GDX will take off. I also got some UYG at $15, although I will hate myself in the morning….
September 18th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Banning all short selling…
whats next….
Banning all selling (unless at higher prices)?
Don’t Laugh,
They will do it eventually
September 18th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Ratigan was classless? Too little, too late…sure, but classless? You want him to be nice to the guys who are one of the key players in creating this mess? It’s not a journalists job to be nice, but to get real information. Shame this type of questioning didn’t occur sooner. Hopefully, someone does this with the presidential and VP candidates.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Sorry, but this hardly looks like objective journalism.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I’ve seen a lot of things in my life but that was ……AWESOME!
It’s about time the heads on CNBC quit accepting every single thing someone says to them at face value. A perfect example was the 10 minutes they gave to Hank Greenburg the other day. Dude spends the whole interview telling America how it is “in our National Interest” for AIG to exist yet CNBC never discloses that the guy has 15MM shares that have gone in the toilet in the last 2 weeks and has a $1B vested interest in seeing them rebound.
Relevant information I would think.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I cannot believe that people are pleased with this video. I guess it goes to show how bad the media usually is…
Make no mistake, *all three* of these people are full of shit and Jay Dhru is not the worst of them. For Pete’s sake did you not hear what Ratigan kept asking? He was complaining, first and foremost, that S&P suddenly started to call the toxic shit what it is, and it was only a distant second to question why they called it AAA previously.
Well Mr. Ratigan, if you expect lipstick on the pig today then you can’t complain about lipstick on the pig yesterday.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
The ra-ra go-go crew suddenly discovers what it’s like to be Wiley Coyote. The ramp is now far behind and the forward motion has dropped to zero. And they suddenly realize which way up is, and which way they are about to go, and they ain’t the same.
The thing that really pisses this guy off is that he’s been made a fool of.
Just like tweety the other day lambasting some low power GOP congressman, It’s easy to take your rage out on some weak player. The key of course is that these people have been sucking up to the big boys for years now, and they’ve just discovered how stupid they are.
All he’s trying to do, is the same thing S&P is doing, which is trying to distance themselves from the carnage.
Look out below. Look for pundits of all stripes, political and economic, to suddenly discover accountability, honesty, truth, national and group interest. More importantly look for blame to make a big appearance this fall, and pundits to be so busy pointing fingers and laying blame that there own actions and words go unnoticed.
Translation: It’s way too late to be grilling the ratings agencies, doomsday is here. The only purpose is to make the commentators look good, and feed the emotional needs of their viewers — as always.
Americans are like the soldier in aliens II: ‘Game over Dude, Game over’. They hate responsibility, and love blame. “lead me, please oh great and wonderful one, I know nothing”. into: “there must be someone to blame”. Kind like how they hate people attacking us, but love laying waste to anybody who pisses them off.
Bad News Kids: this game is in final innings and you screwed the pooch
September 18th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Regarding the AIG downgrade that drove AIG into gov’t bailout, S&P is analyzing the balance sheet, income statement and so on at a static time at different qty reports. This is not to defend S&P at all, but an after the fact attack seemed over the top to make CNBC look like they are on the investors side and protecting them. If that were true, then Nouriel Roubini and others who cautioned this mess many mooons ago, would have been regular guests on the network. Now, these people are household names, given the glory. Don’t forget that when Meredith Whitney made her first call for a C dividend cut and starting warning the investing public of troubles ahead, CNBC would not even aknowledge her. It was, “who is that analyst, never heard of her”. At that point, she was new, just coming off a regular gig at FOX. Why give her any air time if she was a competitor! Now, she is loved by the station. WHY? She can deliver ratings. Dylan is great, but has his own private agenda. Anyone who thinks ratings is second to responible reporting does not know the media rule. It all entertainment,no more than watching General Hospital.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
The guest seemed clueless… it’s scary these people have the power to move markets.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
merely the beginning of the unraveling?
all part of finding the blame, apparently lots of anger brewing for a while. which stage of grief are we in now? still waiting for that bottom.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Wow! Those were some great questions, but I agree with previous posts that CNBC’s coverage was rosy when Goldilocks was in full effect. It’s sad that it takes the demise of huge American financial companies to bring good journalism to the forefront.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Given the shamelessness and incompetence of the rating agencies exhibited during the monolines’ saga, this grilling was looooong overdue.
Too bad it didn’t took place 18 months ago.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Does anyone else think the problem may have been that the select few “Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations” had little incentive to get their CDO ratings correct since they have a barrier to entry put in place by the government? The laziness and lack of due diligence exhibited by investors was because of their trust in these con artists, which is being sponsored by the government in the form of protection.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
LOL. S&P has just put MidAmerican Energy Holdings, the utility 85% owned by Berkshire Hathaway on credit watch for its decision to buy Constellation Energy Group (for 10 bucks below book value). Thanks for the good work guys. You got to keep an eye on this guy, Warren Buffet. He might steal the silverware.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
How can anyone call that CNBC doing their job? It wasn’t questioning or journalism, it was a series of accusations. But then, their job is getting ratings. Never forget that. Getting ratings causes them to be a circus or reality game show.
Second point — the S&P guy was right and handled himself well. The CDO credits may very well have been AAA when they were issued. They were illiquid, and he admitted his ratings don’t include an estimate of liquidity. It’s not S&P’s fault that grown up adults took on too much margin exposure to an illiquid asset. For the entire history of markets, excess margin and trading illiquid assets has been the means of people’s destruction.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I am with you Barry. I don’t think this was too little, too late. My gosh, the agencies just piled on AIG two days ago.
What I don’t get is why they waited so damned long for the MBIA downgrade and just sucker punched AIG. You wonder if someone somewhere somehow was short AIG or the DOW on this downgrade.
I wish the media would do more interviews like this. They have no problem taking on James Frey, who lied in his memoir, or John Rocker, who made negative comments on people on a subway. Meanwhile, the media leaves alone politicians, military officials, and business people who destroy people’s lives and wealth.
What I liked best about Ratigan is that his outrage was real. By not doing their jobs the credit agencies have cost thousands of people their jobs and destroyed trillions in wealth. It was nice to see a journalist expressing some outrage.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
The tough markets do get a ton of humbris and humor going, don’t they. That interview is great and Ben Stein admitting he was clueless is a classic. He played his highly intelligent investor routine all the down….just like they all do.
September 18th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
As a friend of mine who appears on CNBS said…Maria & Michelle are among the dumbest women appearing on Financial news programs.
That being said this interview smacks of “Gotcha”. Kinda like the kid whose in with all the way during the mischief but when it’s discovered he/she rats you out to the authorities.
September 18th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Dylan Ratigan’s behaviour was puerile as usual. Surely, the question for Moody’s was what changed that caused them to downgrade AIG when they did.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Sounds like either Dylan’s 401k is loaded with GE common or his funds have been taking a beating. He was pissed…
September 19th, 2008 at 7:30 am
I noticed that Mr. Ratigan knew exactly where he was going with his questioning, very prosecutor-like. He asked Mr. Dhru about why they were so wrong about the ratings, knowing that he would evade and give some general bulls#$t. Injected that they are going to make things worse by down-rating now, giving the guy a chance to disagree, which he did, but without a good or clear explanation to why he disagreed. He asked how do they make the decisions about the ratings, knowing Dr. Dhru would evade or just not know, or know how to explain it without giving away the kitty. He also asked Dr. Dhru to acknowledge, “yes or no”, S&P’s wrongness. No haps, more evasion from Dr. Dhru. Then, with the doubt about Dr. Dhru’s competence, honesty, etc. well supported by Dr. Dhru’s repetition of the same answers for different questions, Mr. Ratigan asked, essentially, ‘how do we know you’re not f@#$ing up again since you didn’t seem to know things were f@#$ed up last time and don’t even acknowledge that you F@#%ed up last time? Beautiful. Just beautiful. Can I has sum more journalistic-like actions pease?
September 19th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
If Dylan Ratigan, along with other journalists who don’t fully understand the workings of the components of the financial markets (in this case ratings agencies), wants to make punching bags out of some of the easy targets, that is their choice. That is a choice that does not help to educate or inform the viewers though. COMPLICIT to create? Why not say the IT companies that help the investment banks get the products were complicit too? And why not get some of the mathematicians who created the products? Go right to the source. The news organizations that carried the ratings information when they were released were complicit too then. Heck, his mother gave birth to him, is she complicit too?
They are two people in the ratings business in that show. One is rating companies and financial instruments. The other is more interested in TV ratings.
September 21st, 2008 at 1:00 am
There is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle. My gripe is the “dog with a bone” mentality. There needs to be more comprehensive reporting of the financial markets. There have been days when if I hear Apple discussed one more time I want to throw something at the TV. Out of the eight thousand plus publicly traded companies there must be a good number of them doing things right. I want to hear them talking more about the good companies that I can look at investing in.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
WE NEED FOREIGN POLICY ON THE TRADING OF STOCKS BY OUTSIDE COUNTRIES TO PREVENT FINANCIAL TERROR