John Moody (May 2, 1868 – February 16, 1958) was an American financial analyst, businessman and investor. He pioneered the rating of
bonds and founded
Moody's Investors Service. Moody's Manuals are still issued, carrying on the tradition begun by ''
Moody's Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities'' and continued by the annual ''
Moody's Analyses of Investments''.
He resided in
Cranford, New Jersey
Cranford is a Township (New Jersey), township in Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 23,847, an increa ...
from 1893 to 1913.
Moody and bond rating
Moody's was later merged into
Dun & Bradstreet
The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation is an American company that provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, the company offers a wide range of products and services for risk and financia ...
, only to again become an independent corporation in October 2000. Moody's status is reflected in
Thomas Friedman
Thomas Loren Friedman (; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for '' The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global ...
's 1996 comment: that
''There are two superpowers in the world today in my opinion. There's the United States and there's Moody's Bond Rating Service. The United States can destroy you by dropping bomb
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...
s, and Moody's can destroy you by downgrading your bonds. And believe me, it's not clear sometimes who's more powerful.'' (February 13, 1996 interview with Jim Lehrer
James Charles Lehrer (; May 19, 1934 – January 23, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. Lehrer was the executive editor and a news anchor for the ''PBS NewsHour'' on PBS and was known for his role as a de ...
)
In 2007, Moody's Corporation was split into two operating divisions, Moody's Investors Service, the rating agency, and
Moody's Analytics
Moody's Analytics is a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation established in 2007 to focus on non-rating activities, separate from Moody's Investors Service. It provides economic research regarding risk, performance and financial modeling, as well as ...
, with all of its other services.
"Moody’s Corporation Announces New Business Unit Structure" at allbusiness.com
August 7, 2007
Honors
Moody was a convert to Roman Catholicism after being raised a self-described Low Church Protestant Episcopalian, then a Broad Church Episcopalian. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
, and was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem by Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City from ...
.
Family
Moody was the son of William Francis Moody (1834–1919) and his wife Sarah Jane, née Nichols (1839–1897). He was one of five children. He was married to Anna Mulford Addison (1877, Nice, France – 1965); their sons were UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
philosopher and medievalist, Ernest Addison Moody
Ernest Addison Moody (1903–1975) was a noted philosopher, medievalist, and logician as well as a musician and scientist. He served as professor of philosophy at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he also served as department cha ...
(1903–1975) and John Edmund Moody (1900–1926), who died of typhoid fever in Messina
Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in t ...
, Sicily.
Works
* ''The Truth About the Trusts: A Description and Analysis of The American Trust Movement'' (1904)
* ''The Art of Wise Investing'' (1904)
* ''The Art of Wall Street Investing'' (1906)
* ''The Investor's Primer'' (1907)
* ''How To Invest Wisely'' (1912)
* ''Masters of Capital: A Chronicle of Wall Street'' (1919)
* ''The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of The Welding of The States'' (1919)
* ''Profitable Investing: Fundamental of the Science of Investing by Moody'' (1925)
* ''The Long Road Home'' (1933)
* ''Fast by the Road'' (1942)
* ''John Henry Newman'' (1945)
References
External links
*
*
Short bio at Moody's Investor Services
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moody, John
1868 births
1958 deaths
American financial analysts
American financial company founders
American investors
Businesspeople from Jersey City, New Jersey
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
Date of birth unknown
Knights of the Holy Sepulchre