So, this post isn't exactly about business plans. But if you're like most entrepreneurs working on your business plan (or considering changing it as a result of the financial crisis), you've probably spent a lot of time wondering how the economy got in this state to begin with. What sorts of transactions led to the financial meltdown? And who the people are behind them?

Speculate no longer. Today the House of Representatives continued its exploration of what went wrong on Wall Street by questioning execs from the three largest credit rating agencies—Standard&Poors, Moody's, and Fitch Ratings. Wall Street blog DealBreaker reports that there was an especially poignant moment during the questioning (which is still ongoing, btw) where a congressman brings up an IM convo between two S&P employees to Frank Raiter, the company's former residential mortgage ratings director. It went down something like this, reports Dealbreaker:

"S&P employee #1: By the way that deal is ridiculous

S&P employee #2: I know, right. That model definitely does not capture half the risk.

S&P employee #1: We should not be rating it.

S&P employee #2: We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it.

Congressman: What do you think this means, Mr. Raiter?

Raiter: Um...I don't know...I guess a casual acceptance of these things.

Sean Egan, from Egan-Jones Ratings, chimes in: Perhaps that cow was particularly talented?"

Suddenly this crisis is starting to make a whole lot more sense. Watch the rest of the live proceedings—which we can't promise will be so titillating—here on CSPAN.