Just another tool in the box

Investors were wrong to think of credit ratings as some kind of official seal of approval - or, worse still, a recommendation to buy (or sell). Ratings are, and have always been, an opinion and should form merely a part of an investor's toolkit. But now that the financial community's overreliance on credit ratings has been exposed, Joshua Mogin of law firm Buchalter Nemer offers some suggestions for how the rating agencies can restore investor confidence

The foibles and faults - perceived or otherwise - of the rating agencies have been a source of much debate in recent months. From the appearance of the heads of the main three agencies before US Congress to widespread negative publicity about the credit ratings process in mainstream publications such as the NY Times Sunday Magazine, it has been a popular pastime to trash the rating agencies, particularly Moody's and Standard & Poor's. The main thrust of the accusation against the agencies is