Ambac Financial Group Inc. (ABK)

All Comments on ABK

  • commenter
    zooey
    Sep 03 01:15 PM
    Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [view article]
    Will, Murdoch maybe, but someone ought to run the paper. Even its liberal bent is not consistent. One wonders if there is some kind of internal torment tearing the paper apart. The might be economies of scale to joint operations with the WSJ, but the WSJ has become its own version of death warmed over. The FT seems to be replacing the Journal on just plain old fashioned covered and commentary. Once the decline starts, it just cascades to hell. Reply
  • commenter
    RightinSanFr
    ancisco
    Sep 03 11:24 AM
    My Website
    Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [view article]
    It's nice to see Coke buying in China - Coke has long been a truly international company which happens to have its headquarters in Atlanta. For the rest of it (like the Lehman auction), we continue to sell ourselves to cover our $60 billion per month deficit. Closing that gap should be the primary economic issue for our presidential candidates, not who can give the biggest tax cuts to the most people. Reply
  • commenter
    TomArmistead
    Sep 03 11:23 AM
    My Website
    General Discussion on ABK
    I was a little surprised Ambac rallied as much as it did on the OK from the Wisconsin commissioner - I wonder if getting the rating agencies to go along with the triple A for the subsidiary will be the bigger hurdle.

    But I agree it has been a difficult wait and it has been a lot of fun watching the stock recover over the past month or so.

    Reply
  • commenter
    investor88
    Sep 03 10:10 AM
    Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain? [view article]
    David's article is thorough and insightful. Can't argue with the logic and conclusion of the article. The day [may be as long as 2 years from now?] RRE and the bank recover, but not any sooner, it will be time to invest for the next cycle. Reply
  • commenter
    glassbox
    Sep 03 09:59 AM
    General Discussion on ABK
    Yippee!!!! Good news on Ambac! Kill the shorts! Maybe I don't have to wait for next year for $20??

    Pardon my ecstacy. Its been a difficult wait but I'm glad hope has prevailed! Well done Mike Callen and team!     Reply
  • commenter
    Mazel Tov
    Sep 03 09:10 AM
    My Website
    Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [view article]
    Mazel Tov Rachael! Are you the new official WSB Must Know News writer or is Eli scheduled to come back? Reply
  • commenter
    Roger G
    McCorkle
    Sep 03 08:35 AM
    My Website
    Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [view article]
    [Watched Murdoch]"...fanta... about the staff's quitting en masse as soon as he entered the sacred temple."

    I don't think that anyone could think that Rupert's dreams about the NYT could have anything to do with money. This is only about ego and his hopes of destroying a paper that expresses things that differ from his perception of the world as "it should be."
    Reply
  • commenter
    Go US
    Sep 03 03:04 AM
    Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain? [view article]
    I am understanding more now that Banks are relying on the Bond insurers to support the falling/ increasing bank debt on real estate loans

    We are looking at drastic shift in financial policy that is heading towards the Insurance companies (highly liquid) to bail out this whole mess. PMI and ABK are looking really good at this time as I see it.

    What we have here is a failure to communicate!!!!! The Banks have not revealed their real losses on real estate loans but this is old news lets talk about the losses in banks gambling to shore up their losses I think they call it derivitives.

    Real Estate Investors are looking at Cost of Build as a measuring stick to the value of a home relative to materials cost etc. Value in the land is not measurable, but neither is debt and the accountability of the borrowers to pay back the debt. In Poker we call this "You Got Nothing!!!. Banks are in trouble as they race to figure out a way to hold the barrowers accountable for losses and fruadulent loan documentation trumped up by the Mortga Brokers. No one wants to talk about it, IT being the consumer that says they were cheated when they caused the problem in the first place by misstating income and assets etc. to the Lenders. Oh I know the Lenders should have figured this out long ago. A Mortgage Broker I know said he couldn't believe the Lenders let these Loans go out for as long as they did, this was 3 years prior to the Real Estate Bust.... Yes 2004!!!!

    I hope someone understands what I wrote????
    Reply
  • commenter
    Just The
    Facts
    Sep 03 12:56 AM
    Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain? [view article]
    My parents paid $11,000 for their first home. And they're still alive. I don't have children, but I'm willing to bet that any child born today will also be able to buy their first home for $11,000 --- or thereabouts. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am, for all of "your" sakes ....


    ;)     Reply
  • commenter
    Just The
    Facts
    Sep 03 12:45 AM
    Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain? [view article]
    Heck, they're offering tiny little "McMansions" placed side-by-side with other "McMansion's"... here in my current home town, for better than a quarter million dollars apiece. And people are buying them, even in today's market. Go figure.


    It's like nobody any longer realizes exactly how much money a quarter million dollars is.


    Or maybe a quarter million dollars isn't what it "used" to be. Can anyone say "bubble" ?!?!?! ....


    /8^O     Reply
  • commenter
    Just The
    Facts
    Sep 03 12:34 AM
    Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain? [view article]
    I'd have to think really hard to grasp all that was said in the original post, but I suspect that my own real personal "real-life" situation probably reinforces the author's point.


    I'm looking to move from north Alabama to central Alabama, to get closer to family. I currently rent (for a long list of reasons which would justify a whole different article and discussion), and had hoped to continue doing the same. But upon searching, I discovered that it would cost me as much or more to rent in my new location than it would to buy --- my own land and a mobile home!


    Home prices haven't yet dropped to the point that I would consider it prudent to buy, but rental rates have gone up so much that it no longer makes sense to rent either.


    For 12 months' rent, I could buy my own land and plant a used mobile home on it, thereby providing a roof over my head and protection from the elements. Bought and paid for, with no future payments required (other than minimal maintenance and upkeep). And be perfectly good to go for the next 10 years or more, as long as "keeping up with the Jones's" wasn't an ambition of mine.


    Real money and basic necessities, where 12 months = 10 years? We're living in a bubble, my friends. And the only reason it hasn't yet totally popped is because local communities are inclined to pass "zoning laws" to protect the bubble.


    I wouldn't want to be a home owner in a "protected" area when the bubble finally bursts. And that's all I'll say ....


    :)     Reply
  • commenter
    Matt
    Blackman
    Sep 02 08:47 PM
    My Website
    Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain? [view article]
    Dr. H, I'll take that bet! The rate of change (negative) may have declined month to month but it is still accelerating year-over-year. Unless the bubble is done breaking, which would be an historic miracle, the Case-Shiller home price index should see values well below 150 before the declines are finally over. Take a look at the chart.. tradesystemguru.com/co...

    History tells us that bubble aftermaths generally see prices return to well below their historic trendlines. The dashed orange line is a linear regression line so weighted for the later data. The longterm trendline sits around 130 for the 20-city composite...     Reply
  • commenter
    Matt
    Blackman
    Sep 02 08:39 PM
    My Website
    Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain? [view article]
    Unless I have missed something, David has neglected to discuss a key component of bear markets: they are littered with bear market rallies in which the asset class (index, future, currency etc) experiences a dramatic rally only to end and subsequently put in a lower low.

    The best example I've seen is the Japanese Nikkei 225 that has put in at least 5 bear market rallies of 50% of more since it peaked in 1990 ( see tradesystemguru.com/co... ).

    The Philadelphia Housing Sector Index is another great example. After peaking in Aug-Sept 2005 near 600, the index has continued to fall and rallied more than 25% from July 2006 through Feb 2007. Since, it has fallen to around 130... www.quotemedia.com/res...=^HGX

    So is it at a bottom? Maybe, maybe not. But they equate bottom picking to trying to catch a falling knife for good reason....     Reply
  • commenter
    thoroughbred
    Sep 02 07:43 PM
    Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain? [view article]
    All cities must provide affordable housing, usually when a developer gets a permit to build a 20 unit condo project 2-3 of those units MUST be priced as affordable housing to keep the ratio of affordable housing in that city in proportion. But now instead of having to build 2-3 new units and pricing that way, they can now buy 2-3 existing units that are in foreclosure and price as "affordable" I see what I wrote was unclear and made it sound as if the city had to buy the properties, I should have been more clear and said the cities are mandating the builder's buy the properties as a requirement to receiving the bldg. permit. Sorry for the lack of clarity Reply
  • commenter
    B smith
    Sep 02 07:06 PM
    Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain? [view article]
    Thorougbred: Please state what law, maybe its CA, but I am not aware of any U.S. law requiring municipalities to provide affordable housing. Reply
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