From: Adam Shostack <adam@lighthouse.homeport.org>
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 15:26:01 +0800
To: s1113645@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca
Subject: Re: [reputationpunks] Article on Moody's
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9604091832.A19718-0100000@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca>
Message-ID: <199604120346.WAA05808@homeport.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


s1113645@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca wrote:

| This week's Economist has a nice tidbit on bond rating agencies and 
| antitrust on page 80. A comment on firms that trade mostly on their reps.
| Is an unsolicited rating by a for-profit agency an act of free speach
| or an act of defamation?

	It seems that Moody has gotten greedy, and is asking for money
for unsolicited services, with a carefully worded non-threat.

	To my mind, unsolicited work is just that.  Its something many
of us do from time to time, with no expectation of being paid.
Usually we don't spend months on a project that won't be satisfying
without a contract.

	To do work and then bill for it without a handshake strikes me
as bogus.  I wouldn't do it myself, and I have no respect for Moody's,
who seems to be doing it.

	I trust Morningstar more because they bill me for the
information they give me.  They have no relationship with the
evaluated.  A much better model.

Adam

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume