NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ambac Financial Group Inc (ABK.N), a bond insurer that struggled to raise capital earlier this year, posted a surprisingly wide first-quarter loss on Wednesday after setting aside $1 billion to cover future payouts on mortgage bonds.

New proposals to ease our great mortgage meltdown keep rolling in. First the Treasury Department urged the creation of a new fund that would buy risky mortgage bonds as a tactic to hide what those bonds were really worth. (Not much.) Then the idea was to use...

Hedge funds and prop desks holding mortgage bonds are selling munis to raise cash.

Credit rating companies must "shoulder some responsibility" for sub-prime mortgage bonds that have sparked a crisis in credit markets, Sen. Richard C. Shelby, the Senate Banking Committee's top Republican, said Monday.