Ratings Agencies & the financial crisis

[maxx]

Has anything been done to improve the system for funding ratings agencies? If S & P et al hadn't given those derivatives AAA ratings, no bank would have bought them.
The right has tried to pin the blame on the CRA and Fannie and Freddie even though the last two were late to the game, but no one mentions the ratings agencies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_...ubprime_crisis

[Jimaz]

I recently read that Moodies had lowered someone's rating and I thought who cares what Moodies thinks anymore? They're either liars or willing to take the heat to cover for financial terrorists. I'd give Moodies a Z rating.

The announcement that the ratings agencies had suddenly stopped issuing ratings because they had become meaningless was one of the first overt indications that something really serious was coming down.

Has anyone, anyone served jail time for this disaster?

Is fraud suddenly a legal activity now? For some but not others?

[maxx]

Not many people from Wall St. have gone to jail. Matt Taibbi has a recent article in Rolling Stone on the financial crisis. His conclusion is that crime does pay for some people.