Question

Bond rating agencies have invested significant sums of money inan effort to determine which quantitative and nonquantitativefactors best predict bond defaults. Furthermore, some of the ratersinvest time and money to meet privately with corporate personnel toget nonpublic information that is used in assigning the issues bondrating. To recoup those costs, some bond rating agencies have tiedtheir ratings to the purchase of additional services. Do youbelieve that this is an acceptable practice? Defend yourposition.