It 'was the incompetence and corruption, the S & P and Fitch and Moody of his peers, who played a key role in the financial crisis that cost Americans $ 3.4 trillion in retirement savings, has enabled the Great Depression and the failure of mass layoffs, and thus caused the explosion, we owe the government. The root of this corruption? The imperfect "issuer pays" model, where the credit industry as a whole is based. The three main rating agencies were paid a fortune for Wall Street to hand pristine AAA ratings to securities backed by subprime mortgages issued banks - securities which were found to be undesirable. No AAA? The transmitter would take his company - and its high cost - anywhere else. And then, when Wall Street short of subprime loans securitized in the second, has created a market for securitization bets on those securities, are dutifully Big Three also gave full marks. The rest is history.