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RealMoney.com: Jim Cramer Blog
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Rally on ABK News is Just Another Fakeout

By Jim Cramer
RealMoney.com Columnist

2/25/2008 3:23 PM EST
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The Ambac (ABK - commentary - Cramer's Take) rescue plan makes me laugh, even as it totally drives the market with its backing by the agencies. A group of banks that are most directly related to the problems with ABK are bailing out ABK. You can't make this stuff up. That's like the insured insuring the insurers. Who can believe that, other than the agencies who are totally vested in keeping the AAA ratings because so much of their work on the actual stuff that is insured would not have worked without insurance.

The ones who have most to lose, who need to keep the ratings up off Ambac because of what they hold, are going to bail out Ambac, and people think this deal has credibility? I guess everyone is so desperate to preserve ABK's ratings that they will do anything. Remember though, the real issue here, as always, is house price depreciation; as long as you keep getting that you will keep getting these worries and declines. You will keep getting the writedowns.

Of course, this incestuous insured-insurance relationship is nothing new. The insurers also insure each other, not that we really know what's going on as the disclosure of these companies is so opaque that you just have a lot of guesses. That's because they have always been ridiculously regulated.

So, the rally that came because of the deal will be chimerical and must be sold. All over again.

It never ends. It will not end until the Fed cuts rates to where the net interest margin increases and the Fed guarantees those loans of struggling homeowners who live in homes, courtesy of my FHA plan.

Then this stuff will insure itself. But the time for that is a long way off, because the Fed failed to take aggressive action last year.

Just another fakeout. Sorry.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.






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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. To order Cramer's newest book -- "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)," click here. Click here to order "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get "You Got Screwed!" and click here for Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he appreciates your feedback and invites you to send comments by clicking here.

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