Moving toward a relative ratings system is not a silver bullet, but it may be a useful incremental step toward smaller, less damaging credit cycles in the future.

FORBES: Rethinking Credit Ratings

Managements at NLY and ANH have been battle-tested through several rate and credit cycles, but newer entrants have only had to endure the Credit Crisis of 2008-09 and not a prolonged Fed rate hiking cycle.

FORBES: Agency Mortgage REITs Lush Dividends To Continue

The built-in forces that drive the business cycle the sub-cycles of profits, inventories, investment and credit are still there in the numbers, masked though they may be by the unusual convergence of circumstances seen in the late 1990s.

ECONOMIST: Beyond the business cycle? | The