A Question For The Rocket Scientists

November 1, 2007 / 8:01 PM EDT / Political Animal

A QUESTION FOR THE ROCKET SCIENTISTS....Every couple of weeks I take a whack at trying to understand what Collateralized Debt Obligations and Structured Investment Vehicles really are. My latest take is that they're basically ways to game the credit rating agencies (a game the agencies were none too eager to stop, as it turns out). Is that about right?