Word: standardization
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...translator is called Ricky, but this is not his name. None of the mostly Kurdish interpreters for the U.S. military in Mosul use their real names. Tagged on their standard issue camo shirts, Abdul becomes Mark, or Pablo, or Bill. Ricky chain-smokes and sweats heavily; earlier that day he had shown me the ugly marks on his back and arms that, he said, were scars from electrical wire torture by Saddam Hussein's security forces. They tortured him, he said, because his brother was a member of Kurdish intelligence. He tells me that because of what the Americans...
...Street was churning out, the ratings firms helped investors load up on those securities - the same ones that are now, in many cases, near-worthless and clogging up the financial system. Plenty of people at the ratings agencies were aware of trouble brewing. In December 2006, a manager at Standard & Poor's e-mailed a colleague: "Let's hope we are all retired and wealthy before this house of cards falters...
...ratings agencies themselves - Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch - have nowhere to hide. Their CEOs took a royal lashing from Congress in October, and in April new regulations will go into effect, largely to address what is often painted as the Achilles heel of the ratings system: companies typically pay to have their own debt rated, therefore creating a massive conflict of interest for the ratings agencies, which want to hold onto that business. (See "How to Know When the Economy Is Turning Up".) Favorably rating structured finance products - including Frankenstein creations like synthetic collateralized debt obligations - became...
...some finance experts argue that the real answer to problems with ratings agencies is to get rid of the notion that an NRSRO sign-off is the gold standard. To literally delete it from regulations. In other words, to make finance firms and investment vehicles justify - either through their own due diligence or ratings they themselves have paid for - why their holdings meet regulatory requirements...
...We’re competing and working hard now to win a different championship, the NIT,” senior forward Katie Rollins said. “We’re bringing the same high standard...