In 1996, Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, remarked on “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” that there were two superpowers in the world — the United States and Moody’s bond-rating service — and it was sometimes unclear which was more powerful.

Bond-rating agency Moody's Investors Service used to be an ivory tower of finance. Analysts were discouraged from having a drink with a client. Phone calls from bankers went unanswered if they rang during intense, almost academic debates about credit ratings.

A look at a list of companies that grow free cash flows consistently, have high long term ROIC, and high earnings yield.

Great internatonal discussion

Here is the Barron's story that everyone is talking about today regarding Berkshire Hathaway's value. Access to this story should now be free.

Excerpt: "The stock market has severely punished First Marblehead's shares, slashing them 20% just yesterday and more than 50% year to date. That's discounting some seriously bad news for this company. What might shareholders expect for the future?"

Based on comments by Moody's (MCO) management in the last 10-Q, it looks like they could be the overlooked participant in write-downs...

The twelve best large caps buys in the market right now.

Some interesting value ideas from Philip Durell of the Motley Fool. Two of the stocks he mentions are also on my radar.

"Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's, the arbiters of creditworthiness, are losing their credibility in the fastest growing part of the bond market."

Sometimes it's useful to listen to voices from the other side. Jim Chanos talks about his short ideas like Macquarie Bank Australia, Moody's(NYSE:MCO), WCI(NYSE:WCI) and Warner Music Group(NYSE:WMG).

Ideas from various investment newsletter writers on how to play yesterday's market declines resulting from the sell off in China.

Toward the end of the article, John Christy made the following intelligent point: "Why would a Brazilian airline like GOL be hurt by this? How on earth would the fundamentals of, say, Turkcell be remotely affected. You should back up the truck on those names. Same on

Shai Dardashti shares the details of his latest opportunity to meet Warren Buffett. Shai recently hand delivered a letter to Mr. Buffett detailing his two different investment philosophies and then asks him one question. Which of the two approaches would he recommend today for a young investor?