穆迪(Moody's Corp)最大股东、亿万富翁投资者沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)昨日为评级机构进行了有保留的辩护。他表示，这些机构在金融危机爆发前，在美国住宅市场这个问题上，犯了与其它市场参与者一样的错误。
巴菲特曾拒绝出席就金融危机起因而举行的听证会，直到接到传票才被迫出庭。巴菲特与穆迪首席执行官雷蒙德•麦克丹尼尔(Ray McDaniel)一同现身听证会。
由前加州财长菲尔•安吉利德斯(Phil Angelides)领导的金融危机调查委员会(Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission)，正在调查那些最终被证明充斥坏账的结构信用产品是如何获得3A信用评级的。
当被问及穆迪管理层是否应换血时——因为在住宅市场崩溃期间，这些产品的评级不得不大幅下调——身为伯克希尔-哈撒韦(Berkshire Hathaway)董事长的巴菲特表示：“我只能说，在这一特殊情况下，他们犯了几乎每一位美国人都犯了的错误。”
“这是我有生以来见过的最大泡沫……极少有人会觉察到这个泡沫，而这就是泡沫的本质。”他补充道：“价格上涨是一种麻醉剂，影响了上上下下每一个人的推理能力。”
麦克丹尼尔表示，未能对上述证券进行正确评级“极其令人失望”。他承认：“这有损于公司的声誉和长期价值。”在过去的一个月内，穆迪股价已下跌逾20%。
“我更倾向于对那些将美国政府卷进来、迫使政府不得不向他们提供救援的首席执行官们采取严厉手段，”巴菲特表示，并补充称，这些首席执行官“应该下台而且倾家荡产”。
译者/陈云飞
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001032929
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor and largest shareholder in Moody's Corp, yesterday offered a qualified defence of rating agencies, saying they had made the same mistakes as other market players on US housing ahead of the financial crisis.
Mr Buffett, who refused to attend a hearing on the causes of the financial crisis until he was forced by a subpoena, appeared alongside Ray McDaniel, chief executive of Moody's.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, chaired by former California state treasurer Phil Angelides, is probing how triple A credit ratings were assigned to structured credit products that proved to be riddled with bad loans.
Asked whether the agency's management should be changed because the ratings had to be downgraded substantially during the housing collapse, Mr Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, said: “I would say in this particular case that they made a mistake that virtually everybody in the country made.”
“There was the greatest bubble I've ever seen in my life … Very, very few people could appreciate the bubble and that's the nature of bubbles,” he said. He added: “Rising prices are a narcotic that affect the reasoning power up and down the line.”
Mr McDaniel said failures in rating securities properly were “deeply disappointing”. “That is injurious to the reputation of the firm and to the long-term value of the firm,” he acknowledged. Moody's shares have fallen by more than 20 per cent in the past month.
“I am much more inclined to come along hard on the CEOs of institutions who caused the US government to come in and necessarily bolster them,” said Mr Buffett, adding that those chief executives “should go away broke”.
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