p90-96 - What the Sales Brochure Didn't Tell You. Stock index funds: taking a closer look S&P 500 index funds are all the rage. Are they as safe as you think. Can there be too much of a good thing? Better read on., By Gretchen Morgenson
2008 0618 - NYT - MBIA Debt is Setting Up Standoff with Regulators, By Gretchen Morgenson and Vikas Bajaj - [link]
The risks associated with the vast, unregulated market for credit default swaps played a crucial role in the bailout of Bear Stearns.
Now these financial instruments are taking center stage in another Wall Street drama: whether regulators will let MBIA, the big bond insurance company, renege on a promise to shore up a crucial unit with $900 million in capital.
Still, Mr. Dinallo said, the valuations of C.D.S.’s remain absurdly optimistic on both the books of the bond insurers who wrote them and the companies who bought them.
As regulator in this particular poker game, he gets to see both parties’ hands.