Maggie's Farm

The Anchoress..."As I promised many moons ago, after I vote in the primary election I will be leaving the GOP - which I joined in support of George W. Bush - and re-categorizing myself as an unaffiliated voter"

Then we get a several hundred word essay on the disappointment of the Republicans on the positions the current crop of wannabe's.....way to fight the good fight ..Anchoress has obviously never read or understood Teddy Roosevelt's speech, "The Man in the Arena". But so be it.

Part of the duty of the rank and file of a party is to shape the issues their wannabes will be debating and thus aid in charting a course that will garner the greatest amount of votes in the general election.

It's getting a bit irritating to hear the RINO's (of which there are plenty) opine that Reagan is dead and not coming back so forget him. The issue isn't at all Reagan the man, but Reagan's policies. Thomas Jefferson's been dead a good many years too but few would make the argument to disinter him just to reinforce the meaning of the Declaration of Independence (interesting sidebar..he was 32 when he wrote that), or do the same to the attendees to the Constitutional Convention.

As generals maneuver to shape a battlefield prior to an engagement, so the rank and file of a party do the same. Smart candidates listen and begin to place emphasis on those aspects of their records that resonate the loudest with the precinct walkers, envelope stuffers, and phone bank irritants. They build from that the platform on which to run. Occasionally you will find a leader so in tune with the rank and file that not much fine tuning is necessary. Often you don't. This is a don't year.

The Anchoress ostensibly is the foulest of fair weather RINO's and is a perfect example of why woodsheds should be applied to them, not those in the arena.

The next shoe to drop into the bailout inbox. Bohica taxpayers. (Bohica..Bend over here it comes again)

Bond insurers in trouble

This could be a financial nuclear bomb. Seriously. The major bond insurers are in serious trouble and losing spectacular amounts of money. Ambac, the 2nd largest, just announced a 4th quarter loss of up to $32.83 a share. I’ve never heard of a loss that big, have you? MBIA, the largest bond insurer is in similar trouble.

In a serious twisted piece of financial chicanery, any bond insured by a bond insurer takes on their financial rating. The bond itself could be toxic garbage, but if AAA-rated Ambac insures it, then that bond becomes AAA too. How cozy.

The problem is, the bond insurers now are in serious danger of losing their AAA rating. If (when?) that happens, we will be in uncharted territory.

Losing the AAA stamp would cripple the bond insurers and throw doubt on the ratings of $2.4 trillion of debt the industry guarantees, causing as much as $200 billion in losses, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Among other things, municipalities routinely insure their bonds. This allows them to offer the bond at a lower interest rate, thus keeping their expenses down. Without insurance, any bonds they issue will have to be at a higher, more expensive rate of interest - at precisely the same time they are getting revenue shortfalls due to the real estate slump.
Bob Morris @ Jan 18th 2008 07:04

When I was brokering in the bond area I ALWAYS informed my clients that a AAA rated bond was not always a AAA rated bond. Just as a little powder and a little paint make a woman what she ain't, the AAA rating could be a purchased rating. Now we may see the once unthinkable materialize.

It is imperative that bond buyers examine the underlying issuer to make sure the rating is based on solid fundamentals and not some lipstick on a debt pig.

Meta,

I must thank you for uncovering the mastery I possess in simultaneously maintaining so many posters. I do not believe I have a peer in all of the Internet world capable of doing what you say is the truth.

I must say that it requires an alacrity and a quick and penetrating intelligence to be able to do it all. Nothing pays off like coming from a great gene pool and then perfecting those inherited talents for the good of all mankind.

Now that you have so cleverly unmasked me I am sure to be acknowledged as a blogging savant without peer. This will of course simply be another validation of my superior abilities. A validation I truly must say I don't need. I know my own genius and the validation of lesser minds is of little value.

My one hope is that the joy I have brought you can continue to enlighten you and provide you with a challenging though unattainable goal. Thank you.

There's great irony in the blogs that band me. They were the a nd to my knowledge still are, considered to be the most vulgar and hard core. I should have realized that the alphas running those sites could never handle a contra opinion but instead truly had a need to be constantly praised for their vision.

The Rottweiler guy couldn't handle me for even a week. He turned out to be all bark and no bite. The others I can't even remember but they took a much higher dose of Habuian abuse prior to cutting the channel.

I do hope you know that all that I wrote about savant etc was tongue in cheek stuff.