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It has everything to do with losses, how big they will be, and if they will be overwhelming or containable. First, it is always about the losses, not about the inflation, when it comes to the imperative of cutting. No Fed ever wants to cut. Never. Who would? The Weak cut. The Strong raise. Pretty simple, right? Who wants to look weak, ever! But if the losses overwhelm the system -- losses that could possibly be stemmed by their actions -- they have to cut and cut hard. But how big will the losses be? Amazingly, after all the pain that has been taken, we don't know. And, more important, there are people who either don't want to know or genuinely believe that things won't get so much worse that we should worry. Which is why, for a few words, I want to focus on the venerable -- which means you know I am going to slam them -- MBIA (MBI - commentary - Cramer's Take), a company that complains to my staff at CNBC whenever I say that it insures mortgages. They are right: they insure something much more difficult to understand and maybe more toxic: groups of mortgages. First, let me just say this is another outfit that believes, point blank, that I have done no homework and have no idea what I am talking about. Those two barbs have become the bane of my existence. They are what is brought out any time I question what's going on. When I hear them I know that I am about to get snowed by someone who knows less than I do.
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