Comments on: Quelle Surprise! Wall Street Journal Downplays EU Calls for Tougher Rating Agency Regulation

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:02:00 +0000

SIFMA will bully this dumbass and continue on with issuance of more derivatives and lay claim to yet another year of great growth in an industry that owns every government lobbiest (one way or another).

By: Ginger Yellow

Ginger Yellow — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:53:00 +0000

In case I gave a false impression in the previous posts on the rating agencies, I’ve got no problem with McCreevy’s proposals as outlined so far. It’s more or less analagous to the Fed/broker dealer situation – ratings are at the heart of the regulatory system, but are themselves unregulated. This makes for a problematic situation. It’s slightly better in Europe than it was in the US before NRSROs came in, in that we don’t have a first amendment shielding the agencies from civil liability as well as oversight. But you can’t be basing your financial system’s capital adequacy on the the opinions of a small number of parties over which you have no oversight.

By: Yves Smith

Yves Smith — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:56:00 +0000

Anonymous of 4:50 AM,

Whether or not McCreevy is a crank (and we have some Senators that fall in that category), the FT quoted from his speech extensively enough to give a sense of its message and tone. The Journal, via considerable omission and a disingenuous introduction, gave the impression that it was a different beast.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:50:00 +0000

You might want to do a bit of research into our good man Charlie McCreevy before quoting him too approvingly. I can’t complain really. He gave me many thousands of euros for doing nothing, but his SSIA scheme was a joke. Google SSIA McCreevy or read this:
http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2006/06/04/government-throwing-petrol-on-our-have-it-now-obsession

David McWilliams is quite a reasonable Irish pundit and television/radio personality (it’s a small country), not a crank.