Monoline Insurance & Financial Guaranty Reserving

" 'Twas brilling, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And mome raths outgrave" "Jabberwocky" Lewis Carroll (1872). Mr. Carroll's penultimate foray into language and verse that beautifully skates the thin ice between comprehensibility and nonsense had a certain relevance in my early days in the financial guaranty business. This was all I could think of during my first financial guaranty credit underwriting committee meeting. The thesis and content of the credit risk/return debate seemed vaguely within reach but the terror and rules were entirely alien. It was soon evident that understanding this business model would not just be a matter of deciphering similar functions and concepts by transitive conversion. It was clear that an entirely different arena was in play with foreign registers and constraints.