Billion-Dollar Game of Chicken

摘要

Empty cubicles with Aeron chairs and elegant brass desk lamps fill the brown granite headquarters of MBIA in Armonk, N.Y., mute evidence of the crisis that nearly destroyed the once mighty municipal-bond insurer after it strayed into the risky world of insuring mortgage-backed bonds. MBIA survived-just barely-and now its chief executive, Joseph "Jay" Brown, wants payback. He's suing Bank of America over billions of dollars in losses that MBIA says were caused by shoddy mortgage-backed securities issued by BofA's Countrywide Financial unit during the heady days of the housing bubble. So far BofA has refused to pay up, locking the two companies in a dangerous game of chicken that could cost BofA billions.