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Strategies & Market Trends : Contrarian Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (3177)	3/26/2010 8:41:57 PM
From: E_K_S	Respond to of 4080

Ambac Regulator Takes Over to Avoid Asset ‘Scramble’ (Update3) bloomberg.com From the article:"...Ambac Financial Group Inc.’s regulator said he seized $35 billion in risky mortgage insurance to keep the company afloat and forestall an “uncontrollable scramble for assets” among policyholders and counterparties. “You’re not triggering any defaults,” Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg said yesterday in an interview. “All this is, from our perspective, is a timeout so we can create a more orderly runoff.” ...". ============================================================== With many of the municipalities in the worse debt position in over a century, I am not too sure I would want to be in a business that guarantees municipal debt. According to the article, Ambac, insures debt sold by states and municipalities, lost its top credit ratings and 99 percent of its stock-market value after expanding from its main business into guaranteeing bonds backed by riskier assets. The company guarantees $256 billion of the $1.4 trillion in insured municipal issuance, according to Bloomberg data. The muni market totals $2.8 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. I doubt this business division will survive even with government bailouts. EKS