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Inside the Wall Street Meltdown

Friday 21 November 2008

by: NOW  |  t r u t h o u t | Programming Note

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The PBS program NOW asks: What role did the credit rating agencies play in the current economic crisis? (Photo: financialadvice.co.uk)

    An insider speaks out on the pressure for profits. This time on NOW.

    Click here to see the entire show after Friday night's broadcast.

    What role did the credit rating agencies play in the current economic crisis? On Friday, November 21, at 8:30 p.m. (check local listings), a former managing director at Standard & Poor's speaks out on US television for the first time about how he was pressured to compromise standards in a push for profits. Frank Raiter reveals what was really going on behind closed doors at the credit rating agencies the public relies on to evaluate the safety of their investments.

    "During this period, profit was primary; analytics were secondary," Raiter tells NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa.

    Who was watching the watchers? Surprising new revelations in the economic debacle, this week on NOW.

    The NOW on PBS Web site at www.pbs.org/now will feature this full program as well as link to documents and emails that shed light on credit rating agency tactics. Also, Web-exclusive economic insight from Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner and former chief economist of the World Bank.

  

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Comments

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Fascinating!! It is indeed

 Sat, 11/22/2008 - 15:31 — Sydney parlow (not verified)
Fascinating!! It is indeed an amazing time. These titans of what had been the most grand industry coming to the congress hat in hand begging for a bailout! Is that the basis for their multimillion dollar paychecks and perks meant for a sultan? There in one reason only for the success or failure of a company--- that reason in management. That these companies are in the straits they are in is because of the failure of these men to understand the markets they are supposed to serve and to accommodate to them. One only needs to look at the success of the Japanese manufacturers. They built the proverbial better mousetrap. the American manufacturers are still playing by Sloan's dogma--- "what is good for GM is good for the U.S." This has long been passe as W. Edwards Deming tried without success to convince them years ago and was ignored. The Japanese accepted his teachings and grew mightily therefrom. Add to this the loss of leadership of the boards whose job of oversight has long been dissipated. It is plain embarrassing to see these titans asking for that which they loudly deplore for other as acts of socialism. Sydney Parlow Residence @ Copley Place Boston , MA 02116

To whomever Sydney Pawlow

 Sat, 11/22/2008 - 17:33 — Anonymous (not verified)
To whomever Sydney Pawlow Residence is: Yes, you're right, these are "interesting times," but they also represent an opportunity for Henry Ford's wisdom when he said that he would pay his workers enough so they could buy a Ford to be remembered. The huge, global experiment by CEOs in ruining the American middle class has blown up in their faces. Maybe now there will be a renewed understanding that there has to be enough residual wealth for consumption. Try this analogy: a cancer kills its host. Pretty mindless. So also the ideas of Uncle Milty.

MIT is populated by quite a

 Sat, 11/22/2008 - 19:10 — Jade Queen (not verified)
MIT is populated by quite a few people who cannot suffer fools whatsoever. That is why they screamed bloody murder when Homeland Whatever curtailed their ability to recruit the best brains from wherever. The only thing that trumps the color of money is the color of being entertained and stimulated by really, really smart people. Some of our universities still operate this way, though many are still on the old sinecure system. Unfortunately, there are a lot of really, really smart mathematicians who cannot balance their own checkbooks. Few at MIT seem to have turned their brains on the causes for Homeland Whatever's shenanigans. So, ok, I know Chomsky does, but by himself, he's not enough. We need an army of left- and right- Chomsky-like people who are willing to look at the mess themselves or at least hire people who can look at it. I wonder how much paper we could get back for Mary Ordinary if we could get this kind of an army organized. Corruption-fighters the world over would want to watch the operation. We could use color-coded thermometers for how much we get back from this area or that area, kind of like the thermometers by the road in small towns raising money for hospitals and things. So maybe some graphic-artist out there has a different idea for the road-side visual. Have at it.