Credit is trust given financial form. Economic life depends on creditors believing that borrowers will pay interest on loans and return principal when it is due. Credit ratings are essential to this, particularly when financial stress is high, as it is now.
Their key role was highlighted by rating agency Fitch, when it downgraded the US federal government this month.
Critics rightly lambasted rating agencies for the flawed validation of mortgage-backed securities that triggered the financial crisis of 2008-9. But the agencies at least have the nerve to tell powerful governments their economic management is poor.
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