The rating companies earned as much as three times more for grading these complex products than corporate bonds, their traditional business.

The rating company began attaching the footnote to the 30 companies last spring.

If Northrop acquires Grumman, the rating could be maintained or cut, the rating companies said.

The Congressmen who had pushed to create subprime loans now blamed Wall Street and their rating companies for misleading these investors.

The rating company based its increased optimism on Mexico's "reduced vulnerability to potential political and external shocks" and renewed stability in the economy.

Still, the rating companies appear more confident about the company's prospects than the marketplace does.

Who is to say that the rating companies aren't getting paid by the production companies and vice versa?

The rating company noted a deterioration in loan quality of the consolidated Paribas group.

Still more vexing are the sometimes large discrepancies between the rating companies' numbers and the logs kept by Web sites.

The rating company said it had taken the action because of G.M.'s declining earnings and the auto maker's reduced share of the passenger vehicle market.