Well, it appears that the story about the credit rating agencies is getting through, and that is the good news. The bad news is that even the people on the cable news shows, I only watch MSNBC and some CNN, realize, though they do not use my words (“money talks and bull shit walks”) that the Wall Street lobbyists are pouring lots of money and effort into Congress to kill the kind of regulation and enforcement that is needed to protect the investor going forward. W & W Inc. (Wall Street & Washington Incorporated) is a very powerful alliance that will take a tremendous grass roots effort to defeat.
Last night, I caught Michael Lewis on the Rachel Maddow Show talking about the credit rating agencies and the conflict of interest they have with the underwriters of the mortgage-backed bond deals that pay the CRAs for their triple-A ratings. Lewis went on to say the same thing that I have been writing about the CRAs for the last several months. The fact that Lewis’ comments made it onto the TV before 10 pm is good. This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, they were talking about the credit rating agencies again. This is all very good, but we need to keep up the pressure on the Obama administration.
It does not appear that the Obama administration is going to get the fair minded help they need to correct the serious problems in the present system. With everything on this administration’s plate, namely defense and foreign relations on the one side, and the economy and health care on the other, substantial changes in the banking and investment industry may not receive the kind of attention, and reform, that is going to make a difference.
But, I am happy to see that the word about the credit rating agencies is finally getting into prime time. This is the first step. When enough people understand the game, the rules of the game get changed. Many of the members of Congress do not know what those of us that read and write on MONEYTHOUGHTS knows about the banking and investment industry.
Change will eventually occur when there is a grass roots movement demanding better regulation, oversight, auditing, transparency and enforcement. Not before!
Stay tuned.
Posts
3 comments:
I keep hearing little things here and there, as well. I also hear that the CRA's are being sued - and that may be part of the reason there hasn't been much visible talk concerning the CRA's on the part of the government - there may be an honest desire to NOT pollute the jury pool.
check out comments on CRA'a
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/
Here is another posting on the new governments regulations.
https://share.acrobat.com/adc/document.do?docid=237e5d77-d93e-4e99-a6d9-a509e91be055
Post a Comment