grades for firms that collapsed or were bailed out because of bad debt in fact the financial crisis inquiry commission said the three credit ratings agencies were key enablers of the financial meltdown and this brings us to test three ethics ratings agencies are paid by the investment firms they grade and moody's and s. and p. are publicly traded which means they may be more driven to increase profits for shareholders raising this debate right now you have the companies that are are being judged paying the bill and they can live around being a big berkshire the mr buffett also pointed out the market requires it because these ratings agencies has been around forever so they're in shrine by government regulations which oh yeah they have a stake in test for objectivity don frank legislation the financial reform has restrictions on rating agencies and the rules that are yet to be written and they carry huge deal about what those rules end up looking like saw it wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to curry favor with politicians in fact they spent a combined total of one point seven six million dollar