The real issue in the 2008 financial crisis was that the ratings agencies lied about the risk of MBS’s, the securities themselves aren’t an issue as long as investors know what they’re getting into
I tend to see the big issue in having people too far removed from the investment/risk rather than the ratings themselves. Which is why I call out the bundling as securities.
No one at the time thought the ratings were bad because they bundled good and bad mortgages and were accounting for default rates. However, spreading the risk of mortgage assets to every financial institution meant there was no escape when the housing market burst.
The real issue in the 2008 financial crisis was that the ratings agencies lied about the risk of MBS’s, the securities themselves aren’t an issue as long as investors know what they’re getting into
I tend to see the big issue in having people too far removed from the investment/risk rather than the ratings themselves. Which is why I call out the bundling as securities.
No one at the time thought the ratings were bad because they bundled good and bad mortgages and were accounting for default rates. However, spreading the risk of mortgage assets to every financial institution meant there was no escape when the housing market burst.