51.   Perhaps the rating agencies are telling investors only what the markets already know.

52.   Rating agencies have been issuing unsolicited opinions on the creditworthiness of borrowers for decades.

53.   Rating agencies defended their right to publish opinions as a matter of freedom of the press, regardless of whether they were hired to issue the rating.

54.   Rating agency executives said that such changes should not come as a surprise.

55.   Rating agencies have had a good run.

56.   Robin Monro Davies, chief executive officer of the rating agency Fitch IBCA in London, was more blunt.

57.   Rating agency Fitch Inc. agreed.

58.   Scholarly analyses find that the rating agencies usually offer warnings only when it is too late.

59.   Some believe that pressure from the rating agencies will result in big financial players such as Wall Street banks or insurance companies taking over as large-scale energy traders.

60.   Still, Normura Securities is currently examining the way in which rating agencies measure the credit-worthiness of CMBS.