Hey, you missed the story!

Sir, "Moody's error gave top ratings to debt products" May 21, is presented as a "human bites a dog" story even though it really is a "dog bytes a human" event. We all know that Moody and all the others are bound to commit errors, it is only human and must be forgivable, just as then try to cover up those errors is also human though not as forgivable.

The real story is how these agencies could have been regarded as infallible by the regulators who empowered them, and thereby forcefully or suggestively induced the market to blindly follow their ratings.

The article states "Credit ratings are hugely important within the financial system because many investors – such as pension funds, insurance companies and banks – use them as a yardstick to restrict the kinds of products they buy, or to decide how much capital they need to hold against them" and this gives the impression that the use or not of the credit ratings is a voluntary issue, which is clearly wrong. The investors mentioned, use the credit ratings because they have been strictly ordered to do so by their respective regulators.

Now if they managed to get you to spin a story about a once in a lifetime crazy mistake event that is never ever to happen again, then let me assure you that someone is shamelessly using you.