rating agencies (2)

so relying on rating agency judgments has a logic to it , but banks abdicate responsibility for credit assessment -their single most important risk-at their peril.an editorial in the financial times in December 1997,under the banner :'overrated Agencies ' commenting on the then current Emerging markets crisis said :
-what is becoming clear is that something rotten in us markets is helping make it worse ,namely the absurd reliance of investors on questionable judgments by credit rating agencies .
- in the past couple of days moody is and standard & poors have between them downgraded the long-term sovereign debt of south Korea to junk status .... no doubt there are risks -but if so ,why did the credit rating agencies wait until now to advice Their clients ? .
- this is not the first time that the rating agencies ,who are accountable to no one but wield enormous power in the credit markets , have come up with half-backed Judgments .