Appeared on August 12, 2007
Joseph Mason, a finance professor at Philadelphia's Drexel University and a former economist at the U.S. Treasury Department, says the ratings are undermined by the disclaimers."I laugh about Moody's and S&P disclaimers," he says. "The ratings giveth and the disclaimer takes it away. Once you're through with the disclaimers, you're left with very little new information."