Word: grades
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...didn't they see the bankruptcy of California's Orange County coming in 1994? Why did they fail to account for the currency risks brewing in Thailand and Indonesia and South Korea in 1997? And how was it that they were still rating Enron's debt as investment grade four days before the company went belly...
...practice of giving letter grades to bonds to reflect their riskiness was pioneered by John Moody in 1909. But the industry took its current form only in the early 1970s. That's when Moody's and its competitors switched from selling research to investors to charging bond issuers to rate their goods. This approach wasn't unheard of: you have to advertise in Good Housekeeping to get the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. What made it problematic was that at about the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) exalted the status of the ratings by writing them into...
...keep that profit machine going, Moody's and S&P have to keep finding new things to rate. And they're under intense pressure from issuers and investors alike to get as many securities as possible into the top ratings categories. The result is grade inflation, especially in new products like CDOs. That's how banks and investors around the world ended up owning billions of dollars in triple-A mortgage junk. It also helps explain the growth of bond insurers, companies that used their own triple-A ratings to bump ever more bond issues into the top categories--even...
...committee then discussed ways to improve midterm grade reports, a little known practice in which faculty are expected, but not required, to report on their students’ progress midway through the semester. This allows resident deans, who often know the bigger picture about a student, to discuss problems with students early...
Currently, the faculty participation varies, with some faculty filling out the report for all students, some filling it out only for those who have an unsatisfactory grade (below C-), and some not filling it out at all, Duncan said...