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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moody's
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Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO) is the holding company for Moody's Analytics and Moody's Investors Service, a credit rating agency which performs international financial research and analysis on commercial and government entities. The company also ranks the credit-worthiness of borrowers using a standardized ratings scale. It is one of the Big Three credit rating agencies and has a 40% share of the world market, as does its main rival, Standard & Poor's;[2] Fitch Ratings has a smaller share.[3]
Moody's was founded in 1909 by John Moody. Top institutional owners of Moody's include Berkshire Hathaway and Davis Selected Advisers.
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm0808/feature-firsthand-scandal.html
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The payoff was earning an AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s for our principal fund, a first for the State of New Mexico. The fund’s yield climbed from 46th among the states to 7th. We got a clean audit that meant something. I am pleased that my elected successor, James Lewis, is committed to integrity and to building on the foundation that our team built.
As I exited in December 2006 in favor of my elected successor, I did so with several regrets:
- Try as we did with counseling resources and morale-boosting events, there remained some residual trauma from the abuses of the previous administration.
- Several of the employees I fired were quickly rehired by other state agencies. One had been fired by two state agencies before landing at mine, and another had been abruptly let go from two finance positions in a city. After I let this person go, she was rehired by the very city council that had previously fired her!
- To date there has been little appetite for ethics reform at the New Mexico State Legislature. Proposals by Gov. Richardson’s Ethics Reform Task Force were largely ignored. Campaign contribution laws are weak and loosely enforced. There remain no limits on the size of contributions for state office, even on cash contributions. New Mexico is not the only state with these problems. During my short-lived tenure as treasurer, there were at least three other states under investigation for various scandals.
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (415) 723-2558
Stanford using commercial paper to refinance debt
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/92/920421Arc2274.htmlExcerpt:
Buyers "lined up" to purchase Stanford's commercial paper, Russ said. The university received the highest possible ratings from financial rating services - P-1 from Moody's and A-1+ from Standard & Poor's - reflecting the strength of Stanford's financial position, and indicating high safety for investors while lowering the interest rate the university must pay. Stanford's long-term bond ratings are Aaa from Moody's and AAA from Standard & Poor's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway
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Warren Buffett And Moody's CEO To Testify At Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
STEVENSON JACOBS | 06/ 2/10 03:26 PM | 
What's Your Reaction?
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett speaks to a reporter prior to participating in the annual shareholders meeting, in Omaha, Neb., Saturday, May 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
NEW YORK — Billionaire investor Warren Buffett on Wednesday defended credit rating agencies that gave overly positive grades to mortgage-related investments before the housing bust. He said the agencies were among many who missed warnings signs of the crisis. "They made the wrong call," Buffett acknowledged. But he said he counted himself among those who failed to foresee the collapse of the housing bubble. Buffett called it the "greatest bubble" he had ever seen. "The entire American public was caught up in a belief that housing prices could not fall dramatically," Buffett told a congressionally chartered panel investigating the financial crisis. Had he known how bad it would get, Buffett said he would have sold his company's stake in rating agency Moody's Corp. Buffett's investment firm is Moody's largest shareholder. He testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission alongside Moody's CEO Raymond McDaniel. The FCIC is a bipartisan group created by Congress to examine a range of issues surrounding the financial crisis.
