Comments on: About Bailout Nation

By: Biofinance » The book behind the book behind the book redux

Biofinance » The book behind the book behind the book redux — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:15:33 +0000

[...] About Bailout Nation. Greenspun: The book behind the book behind the [...]

By: Joe T.

Joe T. — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:16:38 +0000

@ SizzleLean. It’s well known the Feds twisted arms to keep AIG from being downgraded by the ratings agencies until it was inevitable. Similar pressure was put on BAC to take over Merrill. Monday Sept 15, 550 Billion electronic withdrawals within a couple of hours. There is a much bigger game being played behind the scenes, I’m sticking to my gold bars for now.

As for the book, got myself a pre-order. Looks like it’s already a pre-release best seller. ” There’s no such thing as bad publicity. As long as they spell the name right”.

By: SizzleLean

SizzleLean — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:26:27 +0000

The fact that the Rating Agencies have stayed so completely under the radar leads me to believe that there is a huge untold story about political pressure behind the scenes to get the Rating Agencies to assign the highest investment grade ratings to the crap MBS paper. It is just mind boggling that no one in Congress has wanted to dig into the Rating Agencies roles any deeper than they have. And because the Rating Agencies haven’t been taken to task, they are still free to muck up more ratings, in addition to destroying the companies that were allowed to buy the MBS paper that they said was worthy of the highest investment grade rating.

I’m not sure that the Rating Agencies have EVER performed their role the right way. They are now nothing more than shake-down artists of corporate America, who wield entirely too much power in business (and hence the opportunity and the propensity for malfeasance), relative to their value. I hope that Barry reams them royally. Barry – there’s A LOT MORE to this story.

By: gfeirman

gfeirman — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:17:34 +0000

That’s too bad about this Barry. Total hassle and I’m sure you’re anxious to get the book out as it is very timely. But perhaps this “scandal” will create more press and more sales. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had the effect of getting it on more people’s radar and making more people want to read it. So it might not be all bad.

By: Greg0658

Greg0658 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:20:05 +0000

philipat Says: “THEY broke the contract so why should you return the davance?”
Your havn’t seen the contract so you don’t know the fine print .. which is probably covered in their favor. But if not, this jurist would side with you keep it.

[BR: I offered it back at lunch with the editor. The publisher has up to 18 months to publish, and rather than sit on it I wanted a clean break].

perogy Says: “all of their desks were piled high with trade journals”
Thank you for providing that behind the walls picture.

By: philipat

philipat — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:38:22 +0000

In the current environment this could become a PR disaster for MH. Also, THEY broke the contract so why should you return the davance?
Hang in there Barry and get this published elsewhere. I’ve input previously that in view of the vested interests and the enormity of the task, there is a real risk that reform of this aspect of the ratings agencies operations might get swept under the carpet. IMHO, this aspect is one of the most egregious and one of the closest to fraud. It’s very important that these agencies are no longer permitted to charge for ratings, allowing Ibanks and others to shop around and negotiate a price for a favourable rating. One of the smaller agencies, I forget the name, already operates on the basis of charging clients for research NOT charging clients for ratings. Payola is a very relevant description of the practise.

By: MikeG

MikeG — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:58:44 +0000

Corporate douchebags. They lie like rugs.

These giant media behemoths do nothing but destroy value with their choking bureaucracy and mediocrity in product and service.

But they just handed you a ‘controvery’ PR boost. Not one person in a hundred is going to side with a ratings agency trying to suppress a critical book.

By: mark mchugh

mark mchugh — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:51:49 +0000

What I’m about to suggest is not so much for Barry, but what we should all do as Americans.

Here’s how you fuck these guys:

Contact your local school district and ask why in God’s name they would purchase textbooks from McGraw-Hill. Demand to know how much your local school district is purchasing from them, and ask if they understand the roll S & P played in the train wreck, and how many pensions will go bust because of them (maybe even their own teachers’).

It’s actually the responsible thing to do. It may be the only way us little people can get any justice.

While I regret the fact that Barry is jumping through extra hoops, I am glad to see some renewed attention focused on the ratings agencies (with all the other shit, I almost forgot).

By: aguetz

aguetz — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:17:22 +0000

By the way, polygraphs don’t really work…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygraph#2003_National_Academy_of_Sciences_report

Just have the editors/publishers cross their hearts, it’ll have a similar effect.

By: badhomecook

badhomecook — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:44:54 +0000

…Best PR money can’t buy.

I’m placing my order on Amazon right now.

I’m presuming your agent has hit up Bloomberg?

Sometimes I loathe my profession…