[Vince Ferrer]

"There is systemic risk," says Eileen Fahey, managing director at Fitch Ratings and head bank credit analyst. "This could really damage the overall derivatives market."

[2banana]

"There is systemic risk," says Eileen Fahey, managing director at Fitch Ratings and head bank credit analyst. "This could really damage the overall derivatives market."

That is a 15 TRILLION dollar market - all built on crap...

[truemiester]

“Ambac guaranteed $38 billion of debt linked to subprime mortgages and has exposure to $45 billion of other mortgage investments.”

What idiot thinks that ‘sub-prime’, the lending of money to people who can not pay if back, is a good idea? What supper idiot thought it was a good idea to guarantee it?

Even in business the weak die first. It keeps the herd healthy.

[GovernmentShrinker]

The scary thing is that lenders and other capital providers are still paying attention to the rating agencies' meaningless ratings and rating changes. I'm a banker with a large international financial institution and would honestly give more credence to Britney Spears' opinion on the creditworthiness of rated loans, bond issues, and bond insurers, than I would to the ratings assigned by Moody's/Fitch/S&P. Ambac has been a walking corpse for months and just yesterday Moody's finally breaks down and says it "might" downgrade the corpse -- from triple A! Given that about 99% of bond insurers' business REQUIRES them to have a AAA rating, there are really only two ratings for bond insurers: AAA and DEAD. Take a look at Ambac's one year stock chart and decide which one of those ratings applies.