Monoline death watch

The slow slide continues. Following S&P and in response to MBIA’s restructuring plan, Moody’s downgraded MBIA to B- from BBB+ on Wednesday. The best bit is on Bloomberg:

Credit-default swaps tied to MBIA Insurance Corp. jumped 7 percentage points to 60.5 percent upfront, according to CMA DataVision in London. That’s in addition to 5 percent a year. It means it would cost $6.05 million initially and $500,000 a year to protect $10 million for five years.

Given more than half a chance of failing within five years, according to the CDS market, you would have thought it wasn't worth printing stationary for the new company. Maybe they could just cross out MBIS and write in National Public Finance Guarantee Corporation by hand.