Pity Europe’s financial supervisors. The European Union is about to embark on its own version of rating agency regulation. Charlie McCreevy, the internal market commissioner, in cahoots with the French and other governments, is preparing a proposal that is likely to involve securities regulators registering and directly overseeing the work of ratings agencies in Europe – and he seems intent on fast-tracking the idea through the European parliament and member states in the autumn.

From a political perspective there is much logic in this. Trust in the agencies has sunk to an all-time low. But who wants to take on the job of guaranteeing the accuracy of ratings? In a report published in May, Europe’s securities regulators were clearly not rushing to the front of the queue: “there is no evidence that regulation would have had an effect on the issues which emerged with ratings of US subprime-backed securities”, the Committee of European Securities Regulators told the European Commission. Supervisors realise that with a transfer of responsibility comes a transfer of liability – ratings regulation will be no cost-free political placebo. The ratings themselves are about inherently unknowable future events.