Quote Originally Posted by modandm View Post
by the way tim - you should be ashamed of the article you wrote for the herald.

If anyone missed it - tim argues against mandatory ratings for debt issues to retail punters arguing:

1. The rating agencies messed up with the GFC so why trust them
2. Ratings just give advisors a cop-out
3. Ratings are expensive to get

My view on things is this:

Does having mandatory ratings increase the protection of retail investors?
Does it do so at a reasonable cost?

THE ANSWER IS YES!

A cynic might wonder what IFT's currently listed bonds would be rated as. It seems to me not too highly. Perhaps IFT prefers to pull the wool over mum and dads eyes. SHAME!!
I have found Infratil one of the better communicators of information about their Company and cannot see any real reason to criticize the article.
Rating agencies have definitely failed in their assessments at various times and one can wonder just how independent they really are.
As the saying goes do your own research. As for the IFT perps I think there is no real reason why they should change the conditions. Chris Lee is being a wee bit optimistic.

Westerly