Inside the Wall Street meltdown: An insider speaks out on the pressure for profits.

What role did the credit rating agencies play in the current economic crisis? A former managing director at Standard & Poor's speaks out on U.S. television for the first time about how he was pressured to compromise standards in a push for profits. Frank Raiter reveals what was really going on behind closed doors at the credit rating agencies the public relies on to evaluate the safety of their investments.

"During this period, profit was primary; analytics were secondary," Raiter tells NOW senior correspondent Maria Hinojosa.

The NOW ON PBS Web site (www.pbs.org/now ) will feature the full episode, as well as links to documents and emails that shed light on credit rating agency tactics. Also, Web-exclusive economic insight from Professor William Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner and former chief economist of the World Bank.