2008 Financial Crisis’ Core Problem

This may be controversial as a complex problem rarely has such a simple solution.

I posit that the 2008 financial crisis could have been drastically minimized if not avoided if the credit rating agencies were not profit-maximizing private institutions.

Credit rating agencies such as Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch are akin to the financial police for the US markets. If these were run without monetary incentives then rating the debt could have been more efficient in terms of policing.

Truth (the outcome) gets corrupted when you add money to the equation (the inputs).

Ideally, one day we have a neutral AI agent who has access to financial data and can rate financial instruments in a relatively balanced/neutral manner.