sponger

The Bank Bailout Won't Save the Truly Insolvent Banks

Unless mark to market rules are suspended. It was marking to market when real estate peaked that allowed increased equity lines of credit, and now it is mark to market causing trouble on the opposing end. Unlike other businesses, real estate should not be valued quarter by quarter but decade by decade. At any rate the banks' real estate portfolio should be evaluated not on the asset value but on the performance to maturity value, wherein the asset is the mortgage contract, itself. That would cast WFC and many other banks portfolios in a very different and more positive light.