Comments on: Dylan Ratigan: S&P Needs to Take Responsibilty

By: TRAVIS

TRAVIS — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:43:39 +0000

WE NEED FOREIGN POLICY ON THE TRADING OF STOCKS BY OUTSIDE COUNTRIES TO PREVENT FINANCIAL TERROR

By: mike57

mike57 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 05:00:02 +0000

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.

By: fighting fit

fighting fit — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:43:47 +0000

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.

By: andre

andre — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:30:20 +0000

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?

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:17:39 +0000

Sounds like either Dylan’s 401k is loaded with GE common or his funds have been taking a beating. He was pissed…

By: john

john — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:53:50 +0000

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.

By: grumpyoldvet

grumpyoldvet — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:14:26 +0000

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.

By: Matt M.

Matt M. — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:57:23 +0000

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.

By: jz

jz — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:34:48 +0000

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.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:29:44 +0000

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.