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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tdl4138 who wrote (85341)	8/20/2007 9:07:15 AM
From: orkrious	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

The credit crunch is impacting unexpected places. Miramar Announces Short-Term Investment Status Last Update: 8:02 AM ET Aug 20, 2007 Miramar Mining Corporation ("Miramar" or the "Company") (CA:MAE: news, chart, profile) (MNG: MNG provides the following update of the impact of the recent events and uncertainty in global credit markets on its cash position of approximately $135 million, approximately $37 million of which is invested in Canadian asset-backed commercial paper ("ABCP"), representing approximately 28% of its current cash position. Miramar's portfolio of ABCP meets the criteria of Miramar's investment policy and was invested on the basis of professional advice from a major international bank. The Company's ABCP investments are rated R1-High by Dominion Bond Rating Service ("DBRS") and DBRS has continued to rate the conduits in which Miramar holds ABCP and their underlying assets as R1-High. According to DBRS, an R1-High rating is of the highest credit quality, and indicates an entity possessing unquestionable ability to repay current liabilities as they fall due. Miramar's portfolio of ABCP consists of 14 "Series A" notes administered by non-bank financial institutions. One of these notes, sponsored by Nereus Financial Inc., having a principal amount of $2 million, was not paid on its August 17, 2007 maturity date and remains outstanding. The remainder of Miramar's ABCP expires on various dates until October 4, 2007. Until these notes mature, Miramar cannot state with certainty that they will be repaid promptly upon maturity. Miramar is diligently investigating the situation and possible solutions and it understands that other recently matured notes issued by non-bank sponsored funds, including Coventree Capital Group Inc. ("Coventree") and held by third parties also remain unpaid. A portion of Miramar's ABCP consists of 5 "Series A" notes totalling $11 million sponsored by Coventree. Coventree has publicly stated that this situation has been caused by a liquidity disruption in the market for Canadian ABCP. Should the current liquidity disruption in the market for Canadian ABCP remain ongoing when the notes mature, the repayment of these notes may be delayed for a presently unknown period of time. The DBRS has placed several issuers of ABCP "Under Review with Development Implications" following the announcement on August 16, 2007, that a consortium representing banks, asset providers and major investors had agreed in principle to take significant steps to re-establish normal operations in the market for Canadian asset-backed securities. These steps include all investors in such ABCP issuers to exchange their holdings in each issuer for a long-term note on an individual issuer and series basis. The term of the note would match the term of the assets within that ABCP issuer and series. The Company anticipates that further information from the consortium would be announced next week, possibly on August 20, 2007 with respect to the proposed agreements. The Company will continue to monitor these developments and any impact in the Company's cash liquidity. Of the remaining $98 million of the Company's cash position, approximately $25 million is held in cash and the remainder is in banker's notes, commercial paper (non-ABCP) and treasury bills which are available to fund its operations. Accordingly, the Company does not believe that any current or anticipated liquidity in its Canadian ABCP investments will disrupt its business operations and its planned exploration and development activities in respect of its Hope Bay project. About Miramar Mining Corporation Miramar is a Canadian gold company that controls the Hope Bay project in Nunavut, Canada. Forward Looking Statements Statements relating to the effects and impacts of the market disruption are forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, ABCP market conditions, additional defaults under ABCP including Coventree-sponsored ACBP, the ability of Coventree and other ABCP funds to obtain funding from liquidity facilities supporting the ABCP, and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Miramar's Annual Report on Form 40-F for the year ended December 31, 2006 and Reports on Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This news release has been authorized by the undersigned on behalf of Miramar Mining Corporation.

To: tdl4138 who wrote (85341)	8/20/2007 9:19:53 AM
From: KyrosL	Respond to of 110194

PMF is a muni bond closed end fund. You can see here that it holds lots of BBB and below muni bonds, in addition to A and above: etfconnect.com In last week's market panic, people dumped anything not AAA, and so funds like PMF, and generally those whose average quality was anything less than AAA, suffered accordingly. After the Fed acted, fear dissipated a bit, so on Friday they bounced. PMF, like a lot of other bond funds, rose in value as the Fed raised rates over the last few years because long rates did not rise. Most PMF holdings have relatively long maturities. The Fed controls only short term rates. Long term rates, determined by the market, did not follow the Fed (Greenspan's conundrum). And, in fact, interest rates for lower quality bonds, such as the ones PMF holds, actually fell, because people were hungrily looking for yield, forcing spreads to near all time lows. So PMF's NAV rose.

To: tdl4138 who wrote (85341)	8/23/2007 12:22:58 AM
From: John Vosilla	Respond to of 110194

'My question is, are you better to try and work a "short" sale or offer to purchase the non-performing mortgages? My impression is that purchasing the mortgages would actually be a better position at this point. The seller would be happy to Quit Claim the properties In Lieu of Foreclosure' I would never do the deed in lieu unless you have a lot of equity. Short sale, buy the discounted mortgage, buy it at the courthouse steps at a discount, wait for it to become an REO all are possibilities. Depends on how far the local market tanks and how desperate the mortgage holder becomes down the road.. I imagine you get a much better deal any avenue you pursue later in the year.. They'll be more willing to listen if they can get it off the books before their year end.. By then values will probably be lower as well..