NERA Economic Consulting has a new report out on class-action lawsuits. They dropped a lot from 2005 to 2006, but jumped back up again in 2007, thanks in part to 38 – count 'em – lawsuits relating to subprime lending. I asked NERA for the full list, and here it is.  No surprise that the first subprime class-action suit was filed against New Century, back in February – but I was interested to see that Moody's is one of the few companies with the dubious distinction of having been sued not once but twice. (S&P's parent, McGraw-Hill, is on the list once; Fitch, it seems, has dodged that particular bullet so far.)

Moody's is not the only big name on the list: Citigroup is there too, alongside UBS, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch, and even Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.  Maybe we should add tort lawyers to the people benefitting from the subprime housing boom. . □