Credit where credit is not due

Accusations of bullying tactics and misleading reports only hold, it seems, if Dick Cheney is involved. The big three are in the hot seat, and this time, they flew commercial. We’re not talking automakers (actually, we should say benefit providers for union workers that make cars on the side). Rather, the big three rating agencies — Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch. The ones that laughably approved triple-A rated subprime mortgage-backed securities — an oxymoron if there ever was one. On the day Ken Lewis resigns for accepting a deal he couldn’t refuse, the sweetheart deals the three rating agencies enjoy with the government are, if anything, strengthened. Despite testimony about bullying corporate cultures and massaged rating reports, Congress reaffirmed their Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organizations (NRSROs) status.