As I've pointed out to you in the past, Jimmy. The world changes. If you make an assumption that real estate values will remain steady, as these rating agencies did, then all the AAA paper would have been fine.
It's not crooked or dishonest to rate paper based upon a flawed assumption. However, the assumption itself was pretty stupid.
"The penny stock investor may be the most dangerous creature in the investment world, at least to himself.[...]His hypocrisy becomes most apparent when he then blames his losses on the greed of others." Robert C. Dugan, Director - JRM Capital