All The Devils Are Here is an excellent account of the financial crisis in the United States, outlining how personal enrichment took the place of prudence.

One of its most devastating critiques is of the ratings agencies, which continue to have an "almost Biblical authority", as New York City's finance administrator Roy Goodman put it in 1968 – an authority that, the book's authors show, is not remotely deserved. In fact, when something unexpected happens the ratings agencies often get it very wrong.

From triple A rating subprime mortgages, to the near-default of New York City many years ago, to the bankruptcy of Orange County, the Asian and Russian meltdowns and their failures before the Great Depression, the ratings agencies have a long, long history of getting things wrong. They often downgrade companies just days before bankruptcy – too late for investors to get out. As academic Frank Partnoy put it, even as proof piled up that the ratings agencies make more than their fair share of mistakes, their power continued to grow.

This is important in an Irish context because we are continually being downgraded by those ratings agencies and this will affect the National Treasury Management Agency, given its announcement that it will look at returning to the funding markets this year. We have a supply of money from the IMF-EU bailout fund and we could and should be able to refinance that at lower rates when we return to the markets because the funds are available to make the repayments.

That would appeal to Far East countries, which are looking for homes for their surplus cash. But do the continual downgrades by the bond agencies take account of that, and will we over-penalised if they don't? The Far East is interested in European debt in general because it will also give them leverage in any future currency war – for it is almost invariable that this will happen in the coming years – and they have learnt from their experience in the US the importance of holding such debt.

Dodgy exchange rates

Retailers say turnover figures are good despite the bad weather but is that a result of increased consumer confidence or a return to the bad old days of dodgy exchange rates?

Debenhams a couple of weeks ago had a wallet for sale for €45. Next to it was the same wallet in a slightly different shade but with the sterling price shown – £25 (or less than €30) – meaning the department store was charging a 50% mark-up.

Debenhams' press office has so far failed to answer an email seeking comment. But keep it in mind next time you see Debenhams offering a "sale price". Your "bargain" may just mean paying the full price charged to customers across the water.