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Homegamers know that at the crux of the market’s problems are those companies that insure big, structured products like CDOs and municipal bonds that have beaten down since last summer’s credit crunch. But in addition to being regulated by the SEC, these companies are regulated by New York State, which is why on Wednesday’s show, Cramer spoke with New York’s top insurance regulator Eric Dinallo to get a better grip on what is being done to keep so much collateralized debt out of the marketplace in the future.
Dinallo, who Cramer called the most important and powerful man in the insurance business, said his office’s first job is to protect the policy holders. He remains concerned about the solvency of the insurers, which accounts for why Dinallo reached out to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway [BRK Loading... ()
] to persuade the holding company to get into the bond business. Dinallo told Cramer he is worried about liquidity, and that is precisely why he invited Berkshire to enter the mix in order to help guarantee that New York’s “bread and butter” municipal bonds stayed insured. Dinallo said his goal is now to lay down the “rules for the road” to determine what kind of structured product a company can insure, and what those companies have to disclose.
As for Cramer, he remains distrustful of the big insurers like MBIA [MBI
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] that he doesn’t think are disclosing enough of their toxic portfolios. And he doesn’t believe Buffett will come in and buy any of them, either. He’s in the middle of starting his own bond insurer that is likely to be much better, Cramer said. Why would he want to buy the competition rather than just crush it?
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