A McClatchy investigation has found that Moody’s punished executives who questioned why the company was risking its reputation by putting its profits ahead of providing trustworthy ratings for investment offerings.
This is just more proof, if any still is needed, as to how our financial system has been corrupted.
Moody’s promoted executives who headed its “structured finance” division, which assisted Wall Street in packaging loans into securities for sale to investors. It also stacked its compliance department with the people who awarded the highest ratings to pools of mortgages that soon were downgraded to junk. Such products have another name now: “toxic assets.”
If this isn’t criminal, it should be. Those responsible for the bogus Moody’s ratings, which helped grease the whole diseased process of tarting up subprime glop so it looked presentable, remain at the company.