Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK.A) is finally starting to offload its 20% stake in ratings agency Moody’s Corporation (NYSE.MCO).

Here are listed sales in the filing, courtesy of 24/7WallStreet.com:

· 7/20/09… 1,817,000 at $28.7269 average in open market sale.

· 7/21/09… 3,915,100 at $26.9188 average in open market sale.

· 7/22/09… 2,254,200 at $26.6425 average in open market sale.

What took Buffett so long to start selling Moody’s? We have no idea. Moody’s runs one of the biggest scams on Wall Street. It charges the companies whose securities it rates (just like Standard & Poor’s and Fitch also do).

So what do you think these ratings agencies did when presented with a whole load of junk mortgage-backed securities to rate? They assigned them investment grade status and pocketed the cash.

If these ratings agencies had instead acted honestly and responsibly (rather than pimping themselves out to the highest bidder) the whole subprime debacle and the ensuing credit crisis could have been avoided.

Buffett isn’t the only investment whizz who thinks Moody’s is heading for trouble. Hedge-fund legend David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital is selling Moody’s short.

Yesterday, Moody’s shares tumbled almost 4% on the news that the Buffett had began to unwind his position in the company. We’d like to see Moody’s go out of business. But that’s maybe wishful thinking. Make sure you don’t own any shares in Moody’s. And if you’re feeling speculative, consider going short Moody’s along with Einhorn.

One of the easiest ways of deciding what stocks you should own is by “standing on the shoulders of giants.” We’re no geniuses here at Notes. But at least we are smart enough to recognize it. And that’s why we track what people far smarter than us are doing with their money.

As of the end of the first quarter this year, this is how Warren Buffett’s holdings (via Berkshire Hathaway, his investment vehicle) looked like:

1. American Express Co. (NYSE:AXP) over 151.6 million shares, same as before.

2. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) 5 million shares; same as last quarter.

3. Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE:BNI) 76.77 million shares; HIGHER than 70.089 million shares of last quarter.

4. Carmax Inc. (NYSE:KMX) 12 million shares; LOWER than the 17.63 million and that is two straight quarters of declines.

5. Coca Cola (NYSE:KO) right at 200 million shares, still same as before.

6. Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) 12 million shares, same as before.

7. Comdisco Holdings (NASDAQ:CDCO) roughly 1.5 million shares, same as before.

8. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is really lower than the 71.228 million shares reported as this has been used for cutting taxes, and we already know that the number is lower than what the filing says.

9. Constellation Energy Group (NYSE:CEG) was just updated this week so the number is actually about 12.4 million rather than what the filing shows as being 14.828 million shares.

10. Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) 5.254 million shares, same as before.

11. Eaton Corp. (NYSE:ETN) 3.2 million shares; looks like new holding but may have been missed before.

There’s a lot of talk these days about how Buffett has lost his touch. This may be so. But the guy remains the world’s most successful investor. If you have a medium- to long-term investment horizon, you could do a lot worse than consider following Buffett into some of these long positions. If you think you can outsmart the guy, go ahead. But we know who our money would be with…