A penny for your stock?

OZ's VOICE: "Pay no attention to that man investment banker behind the curtain. Go -- before I lose my temper! The Great and Powerful Oz -- has spoken!"

Toto (Standard & Poors Ratings Services) pulls back the curtain to reveal the Wizard at the controls of the throne apparatus -- his back to the camera.

STANDARD & POOR'S: "The expected losses for the 2005, 2006, and 2007 vintages of subprime collateral have been revised to 8.5%, 18.8%, and 17.4%, respectively, levels meaningfully higher than the 5.75%, 15.5%, and 17.0% levels used in our December 2007 stress test."

OZ'S VOICE: "You ungrateful creatures!"

The four react with fear -- Scarecrow looks off screen to right -- points for Dorothy Ben Bernanke.

BEN BERNANKE: Who are you? 

OZ'S VOICE:  Well, I -- I -- I am the Great and Powerful -- Wizard of Oz.

BEN BERNANKE:You are?

WIZARD: Uhhhh -- yes...

BEN BERNANKE: I don't believe you!

WIZARD: No, I'm afraid it's true. There's no other Wizard except me.

SCARECROW:  You humbug!

WIZARD: I'm a very good man. I'm just a very bad Wizard.

Mortgage/bond insurers

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Company	Closing price Jan. 17	52-week high
Triad Guarantee Inc.	$6.90, -2.1 percent	$58.62, -88.2 percent
Radian Group Inc.	$6.37, -19.1 percent	$67.35, -90.5 percent
PMI Group Inc.	$6.48, -16.6 percent	$51.46, -87.4 percent
MBIA Inc.	$9.22, -31.2 percent	$76.02,  -87.9 percent
MGIC Investment Corp.	$13.49, -14.5 percent	$70.10, -80.8 percent
Ambac Financial Group Inc.	$6.24, -51.9 percent	$96.10, -93.5 percent

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