If muni-bond insurers like Amback (NYSE: ABK) and MBIA (NYSE:MBI) are forced to break into two pieces, some banks could be badly hurt. The halving of the firms would leave the muni…
New York State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo has come up with the lame-brained idea of taking bond insurers like MBIA (NYSE: MBI) and Ambac (NYSE: ABK) and "breaking them in half." According…
Douglas A. McIntyre Eliot Spitzer, former prosecutor and now governor of New York State, will ape comments made by Deutsche Bank (DB) Chief Executive Josef Ackermann. If bond insurers fail its will create a "financial…
Eric Dinallo, New York State’s insurance regulator, is a clever devil. He has effectively pitted Warren Buffett against the nation’s biggest money center banks to see who will get the chance to…
Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A, BRK-B) just appeared on CNBC with his plan to save the bond insurance business in the U.S. for municipal bond issuers. He noted that last…
The head of Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) said the US could be driven into a deep recession if the muni insurace companies including MBIA (NYSE: MBI) and Ambac (NYSE: ABK) fail. The…
Accorrding to Reuters, GM (NYSE: GM) will have half of its cars running on ethanol by 2012. Reuters writes that Cisco (NASD: CSCO) gave a weak forecast, moving tech shares down. Reuters…
Citigroup (NYSE: C) is trading off over 5% today. Wachovia (NYSE: WB) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) are down over 3%. Is it any wonder? S&P today said that its potential downgrade…
Ambac Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: ABK) and MBIA (NYSE: MBI) are both trading higher in pre-market trading this morning. CNBC squeezed in a report after covering the Yahoo!-Microsoft that there are eight…
Douglas A. McIntyre According to Reuters, Chinese mining group Chinalco and Alcoa (AA) have bought 12% of Rio Tinto (RTP) setting up a potential bid against BHP Billiton (BHP). Reuters writes that Motorola (MOT) is…
Wall St. thought things would be bad when MBIA (MBI) reported earnings, but they were worse. The largest bond insurer posted a loss of $2.3 billion, or $18.61 a share, compared with…
Douglas A. McIntyre According to Reuters, Amazon’s (AMZN) financial results show that its profit margins were squeezed in the last quarter. Reuters writes that Starbucks (SBUX) will close 100 stores and say 2008 could bring…
Ambac (ABK) and MBIA (MBI) figured they could improve their earnings by putting money into swaps and derivative instruments. For years they were not allowed to. They had to watch big banks…
As the selling of bank shares has fallen off, Wall St. has begun to believe that the worst of the global banking crisis is in the rear view mirror. Not likely. If…
The head of insurance regulation in NY State is busy as a bee trying to bail out Ambac (ABK) and MBIA (MBI). According to the FT "Eric Dinallo, the New York state…
