would get this bug, then maybe I'd qualify for a better rate on my mortgage....

Good thing the computers only handle virtual money!

as virtual as the money in your bank account.

See, you feel better already.

Curious: how many billions were uprated incorrectly - does anyone know?

I wonder if they where using MS Excel to do the modeling. I hear that it has a few problems with its financial functions. See http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/05/fractured-yearfrac-and-discounted-disc.html

"The bomb says no, Brian."

Gospel Out!! Gotta love it!

Moody's are no better then or an improvement on Standard and Poor either for any type ratings and are basically the lazy man's way of doing things badly for the most part !

But then again , who looks a free gift horse in the mouth where the sun don't shine ?

I consulted at Moodys a couple of years ago and I'm not surprised at all. The people I worked with couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery. There was an entire floor of Indian sub-contractors and hundreds more in India. Individually there were some good people but there was no quality control or decent supervision in the US.

Our project was endlessly delayed and changed because there didn't appear to be anyone who wanted to make a decision of any kind. Everyone with a college degree appears to be a Vice-President or above but none of them are empowered to do anything. I decided at that point never to trust anything that the organization did ever again.

I'm surprised they are even able to produce ratings at all - I know their records management is completely out of compliance and other key systems were sometimes down for weeks on end.

Aw, poot, I thought this was an ROTM story with a teenaged AI which got a bit moody and decided to start messing around with people's credit records because it was bored...

Software design flaw, as opposed to reckless greed and conspiracy you say?

There's a lot of concern and pending litigation surrounding ratings agencies' valuations of derivative products. Now it appears that the only public explanation of the errors in valuation is a simple coding error. Not anything the management could be responsible for, such as a culture of greed over accuracy. Hmmm.

Mine's the coat with the now-worthless AAA-rated debt in the pocket.