Is it governments that control the economy? Banks, perhaps? Or maybe even the people? Nope, in fact, it’s rating agencies — and the there are three in the US that practically control the world economy.
These agencies rate everything — organisations, companies, currencies — and gives it a score. The knock-on effect is that bad ratings — which can sometime be fairly arbitrary — have a massive effect on national economies. In this talk, Annette Heuser explains why rating agencies are a problem — and how it can change. [TED]