Attention Class: "A's" Are Now For Sale
Imagine an educational system where students can decide which teacher to take their English papers to for a grade. And then further imagine that the salaries of those teachers were paid by the parents of the students whose essays they graded. How impartial do you think that grading system would be? Well, that is the system upon which our financial markets are built except we don't call them teachers, we call them rating agencies like Standard & Poor's and Moody's. Rating agencies grade investments so that the investor community knows what they are paying for. Higher ratings mean the investment is safer and any income streams (like mortgage payments) are more reliable ("AAA" from Standard & Poor's or "Aaa" from Moody's is supposed to mean "no worries" as the surfer dudes say). Here's the problem. The company selling the investment to investors pays the rating agency to rate the investment. In other words, rating agencies have to compete for the business. I think we know what that means. In the words of an executive from Moody's, ratings agencies are "continually 'pitched' by bankers, issuers and investors-all with reasonable arguments-whose views can color credit judgment, sometimes improving it, other times degrading it (we 'drink the kool-aid'). Coupled with strong internal emphasis on market share & margin focus, this does constitute a 'risk' to ratings quality." Translation: the bigger the check, the better the rating. Is there any wonder that every student in this class got an "A".
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LOL - Laughs OnLine
"Okay, let me rephrase that"
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What's The Big Idea? 
Beep Beep
Sociologists have grossly underestimated the importance of the car horn. We know that the quick beep beep means "I don't mean to be obnoxious but the light is green." The extended beeeeeeeeeeep means "Idiot! How did you get a license?" The former is intended to be a gentle nudge, the latter a scolding. My question is why do we feel the need to occasionally rebuke a stranger? The answer may lie in the fact that the car horn is one of the few remaining ways to publicly reprimand a complete stranger without the intervention of courts. See, it used to be the case that if we wanted to object publicly to someone's conduct we had options. We could go to a public flogging, or even more grisly a public execution, and throw rocks at the wrongdoer. Or, if we felt particularly indignant we could spit at the loser. We no longer have those outlets. We are left with a very unfulfilling substitute-the car horn. This thought occurred to me because I accidentally leaned on my horn recently in my garage and it startled me because I hadn't used it in the entire time I have owned the car. Does that mean I'm not civically engaged enough? I'm not sure. But, I don't think any of us really believe that we are actually making other drivers better road participants by the threat of public horn humiliation. I think it is cathartic. We do it for ourselves. So the question is what do we get out of it?
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Share If You Care
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Sincerely,
Kwame J. Granderson
Equinaire
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