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In my last article I said that financial insurers could very well be the subject for another piece about financial conundrums. In fact, the conundrum here is very well explained by the unfair behavior of some folks who were shorting those securities, helped by the usual behavior of the mainstream media (a megaphone for the strongest screaming at any given time).

Since then, there have been some excellent pieces, which have done a very good job restoring the truth and exposing the bad faith of some market actors and the lunacy of the rest. As I could not do better and as I hate to waste word

Readers are familiar with my opinion on the proper valuation of Ambac (ABK) and MBIA (MBI). GAAP metrics are not useful: the non-GAAP adjusted book value is the proper measure of their worth, and share prices should recover to that level over the next several years. The primary considerations that are keeping a lid on prices revolve around credibility – specifically, an intertwined set of issues between the bond insurers, their most severe critics (led by Ackman), and the rating agencies, S&P and Moody's. The purpose of this article is to present my analysis, which demonstrates that the rep

Filed under: Rants and raves, Chasing Value, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2008, MBIA Inc (MBI)

Reporting on the daily appreciation of MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) over the last few weeks has made me feel like a play-by-play announcer. One comment in an earlier post on MBIA raked me over the coals for writing when the stock was up 26%, only a few days after I suggested readers take a look at some crushed financials in Serious Money: Tempting fate with 10 financials. He did this even though on the day he commented it was up by 74%.

I was just reporting the jump but the reader took me to task for bra

Filed under: Major movement, Earnings reports, Rants and raves, Chasing Value, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2008, MBIA Inc (MBI)

Filed under: Major movement, Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Merrill Lynch (MER), Wachovia Corp (WB), Washington Mutual (WM), Serious Money, Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Stocks to Buy, Newcastle Investment (NCT), MBIA Inc (MBI), Gramercy Capital (GKK), E*TRADE (ETFC), East West Bancorp (EWBC)

After the market closed last night, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounding from Monday's notable drop and ending the trading day at 11,397.56, up 266.48 (+2.39%), I posted Serious Money: 10 finance stocks as the market bounces. This is the follow-up post listing the full pool of speculative s

Filed under: Major movement, Rants and raves, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Money and Finance Today, Merrill Lynch (MER), Serious Money, DJIA, Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Stocks to Buy, MBIA Inc (MBI)

Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced back from yesterday's poor showing. It ended the trading day at 11,397.56, that's plus 266.48 (+2.39%) returning more than it had lost only 24 hours ago.

There are plenty of prognosticators explaining why this happened and so I am not going to join the crowd this afternoon with my own version. Leave it to say we are i

Filed under: Major movement, Rants and raves, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Money and Finance Today, Merrill Lynch (MER), Serious Money, DJIA, Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Stocks to Buy, MBIA Inc (MBI)

Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced back from yesterday's poor showing. It ended the trading day at 11,397.56, that's plus 266.48 (+2.39%) returning more than it had lost only 24 hours ago.

There are plenty of prognosticators explaining why this happened and so I am not going to join the crowd this afternoon with my own version. Leave it to say we are i

MBIA Inc. (MBI) and Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (ABK) have been at the center of the credit and housing crisis as insurers of sub-prime, sub-A loans, and prime housing loans. Analysts continue to drop the earnings estimates and the stocks themselves fall to new lows weekly.

MBIA Inc. (MBI) and Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (ABK) have been at the center of the credit and housing crisis as insurers of sub-prime, sub-A loans and prime housing loans. Analysts continue to drop the earnings estimates and the stocks themselves fall to new lows weekly.

MBIA Inc.

Filed under: Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Bank of America (BAC), CIT Group (CIT), Merrill Lynch (MER), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Wachovia Corp (WB), Washington Mutual (WM), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Stocks to Sell, Cramer on BloggingStocks, MBIA Inc (MBI)

From TheStreet.com Network

• Merrill, Citi Cut By Oppenheimer's Whitney
• Financial Winners & Losers: CIT Group

There has been some interesting buying in shares of both Ambac (ABK) and MBIA (MBI).

Insiders:
MBIA's Chairman Joseph Brown bought 159,000 shares of stock at $5.91 per share last week, giving him 2,611,456 shares of direct ownership.

Ambac's Chairman and CEO Michael A. Callen bought 10,000 company shares at $2.60 per share. Director Laura Unger disclosed transactions from June 3 for purchases of 103,334 shares at $3.00 in two transactions. Jill Considine, Philip Duff, and Henry Wallace all also each bought 33,334 shares at $3.00 on June 3.

Big Fish:
Martin Whitman added to his holdings in Ambac

Filed under: Market matters, CBS Corp 'B' (CBS), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Washington Mutual (WM), Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks, MBIA Inc (MBI)

Filed under: Market matters, Schlumberger Limited (SLB), Citigroup Inc. (C), Boeing Co (BA), Merrill Lynch (MER), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Honeywell Intl (HON), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Stocks to Buy, Housing, Cramer on BloggingStocks, MBIA Inc (MBI)

I apologize if I seem defensive or full of myself, but often when I strike out with a contrarian opinion, I get a lot of negative feedback. It often causes me to view things defensively. Case in point - Ambac.<!--more--> When I first released my analysis on this company, I said:

Ambac is Effectively Insolvent & Will See More than $8 Billion of Losses with Just a $2.26 Billion equity base.