In recent years, it has been hard to feel sympathy for the rating agencies. In the credit boom, the agencies stoked the bubble by pumping out wildly – or wilfully – misguided analyses on issues from mortgage risk to Iceland.
And when the bubble burst, they were notably slow to admit fault. I vividly remember, to cite just one example, how Moody’s downgraded dozens of mortgage-linked collateralised debt obligations late on Christmas Eve 2007 – presumably hoping to avoid too much attention.
But this Christmas, I almost feel a twinge of pity. For as pressures mount in the eurozone, they are in an impossible bind. This year many investors have complained that the agencies have been slow to recognise the scale of problems, downgrading periphery debt too late – and after debt prices have started to move.