The Author analyzes the central role of the three major credit rating agencies -- Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch--in the subprime mortgage debacle of 2007-2008. That centrality was not accidental. Seven decades of financial regulation have led credit rating agencies into the center of the bond information market, by elevating their judgments about the creditworthiness of bonds so that those judgments got to the “force of law”. In 1975, the Securities and Exchange Commission worsened the problem, erecting a barrier to entry into the business of credit ratings for which only certain agencies could issue credit ratings with a value of "regulatory-licenses", thus creating a closed market and free competition. In order to make a reasoned debate on the new direction of public policy in the field of credit rating agencies is critically important to understand their history, their origins, but also how they have come to play a prominent role within the capital markets.