A reminder of the great days of the mortgage bubble, from the same folks who brought you this afternoon’s U.S. Treasury downgrade, Standard & Poor’s:

Official #1: Btw that deal is ridiculous.
Official #2: I know right…model def does not capture half the risk.
Official #1: We should not be rating it.
Official #2: We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it.

Of course, that’s because the dealmakers paid S&P for the ratings. Not so the U.S. Treasury—it gets S&P’s judgment for free.