JENNY RUTH: What use are ratings agencies in the time of covid-19?

Mon, 23 Mar 2020

When the worsening coronavirus crisis shuts everything from borders to schools, and firms from airlines to your local cafe are staring at their businesses evaporating, are ratings agencies doing us a service by saying they're thinking of downgrading this or that company or country?Standard & Poor's Corp tells us it has placed the ratings of five Australian and three New Zealand airports on creditwatch negative, the first step towards downgrading their ratings.Given that both Australia and New Zealand have just shut their borders to anybody...

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