Post subscribers will recall the contribution that ratings agencies made to the Financial Apocalypse, which could not have occurred if "structured debt" backed by securitizing packages containing worthless subprime mortgages had been rated as "structured debt" backed by securitizing packages containing worthless subprime mortgages instead of receiving the highest credit grades possible. Well, just now it's being reported that an Australian judge has ruled Standard & Poor's was "misleading and deceptive" in awarding its holy AAA to two issues that lost 90% of their value soon after some Wall Street Crime Family conned an Aussie plaintiff into buying them.
A Sydney professor is quoted as observing that "this is the first time that a ratings agency has been held liable for their opinion in this way." According to Bloomberg's coverage, linked below, S&P had argued that investors can't rely on the ratings as investment advice.
The piece puts the total loss in the Financial Apocalypse at $2 trillion, and refers to similar cases being tried elsewhere outside the United States.
Looks like the longstanding and widespread corruption of our own legal system, sheltering financial criminals from any kind of appropriate punishment whatsoever, won't be extending beyond our borders on this one, The MacDougal Post staff is pleased to deduce.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-04/s-p-found-liable-by-australian-court-for-misleading-ratings.html
