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Don't Ignore the Mortgage Insurers

By Jim Cramer

About this article:
Round up the usual suspects: Radian MBIA MGIC Ambac PMI Throw in walking dead ACA Capital and Security Capital, and I think you produce what is really wrong with this market. Anybody who takes even a casual look at the October delinquencies knows that these companies are going to be severely capital-challenged. Meanwhile, value guys like Third Avenue Management (Radian) and fellow travelers (Old Republic and PMI) make Pyrrhic stands and engender short squeezes that are mistakenly not used to recapitalize. And outfits from E*Trade to Fannie Mae are left holding the bag on this stuff. It is the insurers that seem to be ignored -- still -- as the Achilles' heel that will make it so that so many institutions have to regard junk as nonperforming. The perfect soggy chain of Moody's and Standard & Poor's rating these firms in turn gives Moody's and S&P the right to rate so many stupid...

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