- John Moody
John Moody (1868 - 1958) was a U.S.
financial analyst and investor. He pioneered the rating of bonds and foundedMoody's Investment Services . Moody's Manuals are still issued, carrying on the tradition begun by the seminalMoody's Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities and continued by the annualMoody's Analyses of Investments .Moody and Bond Rating
Moody's was later merged into
Dun & Bradstreet , only to again become an independent corporation in October 2000. Moody's status is reflected inThomas Friedman 's 1996 comment that:"There are two superpowers in the world today in my opinion. There's the
United States and there'sMoody's Bond Rating Service . TheUnited States can destroy you by droppingbombs , and Moody's can destroy you by downgrading your bonds. And believe me, it's not clear sometimes who's more powerful." "(From Feb. 13, 1996 interview withJim Lehrer .)"Honors
John Moody received an honorary
Doctor of Laws fromBoston College and was madeKnight Commander of theOrder of the Holy Sepulchre ofJerusalem byPope Pius XI .Family
Moody was the son of
William Francis Moody (1834-1919) andSarah Jane Nichols (1839-1897). He was one of five children, includingJeanette Hope Moody (1871-?),William Francis Moody (1872-1958),Eliot Crofts Moody (1875-?), andArthur Henry Herbert Moody (1876-?).He was married to
Anna Mulford Addison (1877-1965) who was born inNice, France . His children includeUCLA philosopher and medievalist,Ernest Addison Moody (1903-1975) andJohn Edmund Moody (1900-1926), who died of typhoid fever in Messina,Italy . He is a convert to Catholicism.Autobiographical works
* The Long Road Home (1933) [http://www.gutenberg.net/1/1/8/2/11823/11823-8.txt Copyright renewed 1961] [http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm Public domain in 2029] .
* Fast by the Road (1942) [http://www.gutenberg.net/1/1/8/3/11839/11839-8.txt Copyright renewed 1969] [http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm Public domain in 2038] .Works Available Online
*gutenberg author|id=John_Moody|name=John Moody
* [http://www.moodys.com/moodys/cust/AboutMoodys/AboutMoodys.aspx?topic=history Short bio at Moody's Investor Services]
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