Moody’s Signals It Should Cut Ambac, But Isn’t Cutting It (ABK)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Moody’s is affirming the current ratings and capital ratios at Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK), although there is not a downgrade being issued.  Moody’s has noted that Ambac’s capital is currently under its "Aaa" target level and it would review the capital plans as the situation develops.  If the company gets the bailout, it should get to sneak its "Aaa" rating.

We have noted before, as have many others, that this is a mere dance right now that is nothing short of a game to avoid a sudden financial collapse.  It’s almost like the Treasury hiring out counterfeiters to print $1Trillion to put into circulation so that it doesn’t have to officially count the funds as being in the money supply.

We still think some of these mergers will be mandated rather than preferred.  Is there a more appropriate day than Leap Day to put this out?  Maybe April 1.  The good news is that Ambac stock is now up on the day.  Maybe stock buyers are getting to buy stock with that counterfeit money.  We don’t want to see a market crash or a recession that turns into a depression either.  But some serious games are being played in the system right now, and all the players know it.

Jon C. Ogg
February 29, 2008

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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