When superintendent of insurance for New York Eric Dinallo first proposed a rescue plan for the monoline guarantee companies this was viewed by many in the market as a much-needed piece of good news. At last someone was prepared to do something proactive to sort out the mess that these firms have found themselves in. But the regulator’s approach seemed to have moved from carrot to stick when the financial market’s favourite bogeyman, New York governor Eliot Spitzer, subsequently announced that the firms had just five business days to...
