11 of 16
BACK NEXT
11. The Enablers
Moody's, Fitch, Standard & Poor's

Business runs on borrowed money, and the credit rating agencies judge how risky a debt issuer is. Without their backing, it would have been impossible to sell the structured finance products that tore through (and are now tearing apart) the markets. The agencies stood by their sterling ratings on trashy subprime-backed bonds even after the credit crisis began, a decision that would soon trash their reputations

NEXT: The Watchdogs
Last updated August 06 2008: 6:26 PM ET
Credit crunch isn't over Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney tells Fortune that housing woes will force banks to keep taking writedowns. (more)
CEO misery indexIt's not just the average Joe suffering as the U.S. economy heads south. These top U.S. executives are really feeling the heat too. (more)
The trials of Jimmy Cayne Last summer the ex-Bear Stearns CEO was worth $1.6 billion on paper. Then he nearly died and Bear collapsed. (more)

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.