Bean counter hoot!
Hugh Williamson and Tony Major in the Financial Times report that Germany attacks ratings agencies as 'insensitive':

German politicians yesterday called for curbs on international ratings agencies, which they claimed did not understand Germany's business culture and may have been influenced by the diplomatic rift between Berlin and Washington.

Rainer Wend, who is a senior member of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrat party, said: "We have to ask ourselves whether the ratings agencies are really sensitive to German business practices, or whether they only operate on the basis of Anglo-American business principles."
...
His criticisms were echoed by Joachim Poss, the SPD's parliamentary finance spokesman, who said the "significant influence" of these agencies in Germany was a problem. "They don't understand our business culture," he said.

OK, I'll bite. What are the differentiating features of German business culture?

Last week, Standard and Poor's cut ThyssenKrupp's credit rating to "junk" status because of a rising pension funding gap. The company insisted the move was "incomprehensible".

Last month, S&P warned it might downgrade the ratings of a dozen European companies because tumbling markets had eroded the value of pension funds. As well as Thyssen, two other German groups were named - Deutsche Post and the industrial gases company Linde.

Hmm, they have huge pension fund liabilities and they don't want S&P to notice. Sounds tres Euro! Especially the solution:

Politicians welcomed last week's announcement by Hans Eichel, finance minister, that he might introduce tighter controls on ratings agencies. These could include a code of conduct for agencies operating in Germany.

Here's the new code - No ratings can embarrass the SPD. I also liked the political canard about the "diplomatic rift". One problem though:

Jürgen Berblinger, head of Moody's in Germany, rejected the suggestions of political influence, and pointed out that all its ratings of European companies "were made by European analysts based in Europe".

The SPD apparently hasn't realized that cooked books aren't particularly appetizing.