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January 17, 2008

After Reading the Prospectus and Reviewing Potential Losses, Would You Buy These Notes?
by Reggie Middleton

This is from MBIA's recently published 8k. If you have not done so already, it is strongly recommended that you read the November blog post: Super Scary Halloween Tale of 104 Basis Points Pt I & II, by Reggie Middleton.

Item 2.03. Creation of a Direct Financial Obligation or an Obligation under an Off-Balance Sheet Arrangement of a Registrant

On January 16, 2008, MBIA Insurance Corporation ("MBIA"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of MBIA Inc. (the "Company"), issued $1.0 billion principal amount of Surplus Notes due January 15, 2033 (the "Notes") with an initial interest rate of 14 percent until January 15, 2013 and thereafter at an interest rate of three-month LIBOR plus 11.26 percent. As a point of reference:

The Notes were issued pursuant to the Fiscal Agency Agreement, dated January 16, 2008 (the "Fiscal Agency Agreement'), entered into between MBIA and The Bank of New York ("BONY"), as fiscal agent (the "Fiscal Agent"), in an offering exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

The Notes are subordinate in right of payment to all existing and future debt issued, incurred or guaranteed by MBIA, all existing and future claims of policyholders and beneficiaries and all other creditor claims which have priority over claims with respect to the Notes under New York insurance law, other than any future surplus notes or similar obligations. Each payment of interest on or principal of the Notes (including upon redemption) may be made only with the prior approval of the New York Superintendent of Insurance and only out of surplus funds available for such payments under the New York Insurance Law.

MBIA has the option to redeem the Notes in whole or in part on January 15, 2013 and the interest payment date occurring in January of each fifth succeeding year thereafter at a redemption price equal to the principal amount of the Notes to be redeemed together with any accrued and unpaid interest to the redemption date, and on any other date at a "make-whole" redemption price set forth in the Notes.

The Notes do not include any restrictive covenants.

In the event of MBIA's rehabilitation, liquidation, conservation or dissolution, the Notes will immediately mature in full without any action on the part of the fiscal agent or any holder of the Notes, with payment thereon being subject to the satisfaction of the conditions to payment described herein.

In no event shall the Fiscal Agent or any holder of the Notes be entitled to declare the Notes immediately mature or otherwise immediately payable.

The Bank of New York has from time to time engaged in, and will continue to engage in, banking and other commercial dealings in the ordinary course of business with MBIA and its affiliates. The Bank of New York has received, and will continue to receive, customary remunerations with respect to these transactions.

From my second blog post on MBIA (the Scary Halloween Story) and the monolines dated Tuesday, 13 November 2007...

Being so sensitive and exposed to CDOs, one would be curious as to what happens if the CDO spreads widen. Well...

So, an increase of 104 basis points in CDO spreads wipes out the equity of MBIA, TOTALLY wipes it out.

To put this into perspective, let me show you the entire sensitivity grid. Hey, no matter which way you look at, these guys are at risk. They have $6,800 in capital. Just move your finger over any combination of CDO duration and spread in basis points, and if you come close to that 6,800 figure, bingo! The current duration average is approximately 5 years. So the question is, "Will spreads reach 104, or more?" Well, look at the charts above that I posted from Pershing. Better yet, look at the subprime underlyings performance, which can be mimicked by the ABX from markit.com. Horrendous, indeed.

Reggie Middleton
Reggie Middleton, LLC
Perpetual Interests, LLCTM
718-344-5953
http://boombustblog.com/

Who am I?

Well, I fancy myself the personification of the free thinking maverick, the ultimate non-conformist as it applies to investment and analysis. I am definitively outside the box - not your typical or stereotypical Wall Street investor. I work out of my home, not a Manhattan office. I build my own technology and perform my own research - in lieu of buying it or following the crowd. I create and follow my own macro strategies and am by definition, a contrarian to the nth degree.

Since I use my research as a tool for my own investing to actually put food on my table, I can stand behind it as doing what it is supposed too - educate, illustrate and elucidate. I do not sell advice, I am not a reporter hence do not sell stories, and I do not sell research. I am an entrepreneur who exists just outside of mainstream corporate America and Wall Street. This allows me freedom to do things that many can not. For instance, I pride myself on developing some of the highest quality research available, regardless of price. No conflicts of interest, no corporate politics, no special favors. Just the hard truth as I have found it - and believe me, my team and I do find it! I welcome any and all to peruse my blog, use my custom hacked collaborative social tools, read the articles, download the files, and make a critical comparison of the opinion referencing the situation at hand and the time stamp on the blog post to the reality both at the time of the post and the present. Hopefully, you will be as impressed with the Boom Bust as I am and our constituency.

I pay for significant information and data, and am well aware of the value of quality research. I find most currently available research lacking, in both quality and quantity. The reason why I had to create my own research staff was due to my dissatisfaction with what was currently available - to both individuals and institutions.

So here I am, creating my own research for my own investment activity. What really sets my actions apart is that I offer much of what I produce to the public without charge - free to distribute and redistribute, as long as it is left unaltered and full attribution is given to the author and owner. Why would I do such a thing when others easily charge 5 and 6 digits annually for what some may consider a lesser product? It is akin to open source analysis! My ideas and implementations are actually improved and fine tuned when bounced off of the collective intellect of the many, in lieu of that of the few - no matter how smart those few may believe themselves to be.

Very recently, I have started charging for the forensics portion of my work, which has freed up the resources to develop the site to deliver even more research for free, particularly on the global macro and opinion front. This move has allowed me to serve an more diverse constituency, which now includes the institutional consumer (ie., investment turned consumer banks, hedge funds, pensions, etc,) as well as the newbie individual investor who is just getting started - basically the two polar opposites of the investing spectrum. I am proud to announce major banks as paying clients, and brand new investors who take my book recommendations and opinions on true wealth and success to heart.

So, this is how I use my background and knowledge in new media, distributed computing, risk management, insurance, financial engineering, real estate, corporate valuation and financial analysis to pursue, analyze and capitalize on global macroeconomic opportunities. I have included a more in depth bio at the bottom of the page for those who really, really need to know more about me.

Visit his blog Boom Bust Blog.

Copyright © 2007-2008 Reggie Middleton

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