Cramer on BloggingStocks: The mortgage insurers created this mess

Jim Cramer — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:38:00 EST

Filed under: Major Movement, Bad News, Market Matters, Bank of America (BAC), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Washington Mutual (WM), Headline News, Housing, Cramer on BloggingStocks, MBIA Inc (MBI)

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Fannie and Freddie aren't the true culprits here.

The blowhards and bluff artists and the Gang of Four -- Ambac (NYSE: ABK) (Cramer's Take), MBIA (NYSE: MBI) (Cramer's Take), MGIC (NYSE: MTG) (Cramer's Take) and PMI (NYSE: PMI) (Cramer's Take) -- truly have blood on their hands for this moment. So do the ratings agencies, the mortgage insurers and the salespeople who packaged undocumented loans and pushed buying homes with no money down.

The whole apparatus stinks and we are now seeing the unwinding, but I think that the false assurances created by the Gang of Four and their insistence to not worry made everyone way too complacent. Their glib promises as well as the incredibly lax work of the ratings agencies, S&P and Moody's, enabled the whole edifice to be propped up.

And once it was clear to them that they needed more capital, they chose to forgo the window and attack the shorts. Had they raised the capital they needed and had the ratings agencies said they can't bless any more of this junk, we might have never been in this spot.

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Cramer on BloggingStocks: Don't ignore the mortgage insurers

Jim Cramer — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:01:00 EST

Filed under: CIT Group (CIT), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Countrywide Financial (CFC), Lennar Corp'A' (LEN), Washington Mutual (WM), IndyMac Bancorp (IMB), Housing, Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says most people -- including the Fed governors -- haven't spotted this market Achilles heel.

Round up the usual suspects: Radian (NYSE: RDN) (Cramer's Take) - MBIA (NYSE: MBI) (Cramer's Take) - MGIC (NYSE: MTG) (Cramer's Take) - Ambac (NYSE: ABK) (Cramer's Take) - PMI (NYSE: PMI) (Cramer's Take).

Throw in walking dead ACA Capital (NYSE: ACA) (Cramer's Take) and Security Capital (NYSE: SCA) (Cramer's Take), 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 (NASDAQ: ETFC) (Cramer's Take) to Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) (Cramer's Take) are left holding the bag on this stuff.

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Cramer on BloggingStocks: Don't ignore the mortgage insurers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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