This Wall Street Watch Working Paper emphasizes the significant role of the major private credit rating firms in creating the housing bubble and subsequent financial crash of 2007-2008. M. Ahmed Diomande, Secretary of the New York State Senate Finance Committee, and University of Massachusetts, Amherst Profesors James Heintz and Robert Pollin recommend the creation of a public credit ratings agency that would operate free of the perverse incentive system that distorts the work of private firms.

Download Why U.S. Financial Markets Need a Public Credit Ratings Agency