wakeup call

Obama and the Bankers - An Imagined Conversation

-A year ago the administration calls in the heads of the top 11 banks
-The bankers are told they can't leave the room until they take Fed money
-the administrations limits salaries for top bankers
-the banks pay back the government loans they didn't want in the first place
-The administrations tries to force the banks to take direction from the administrations and threatens more control because they took federal money
-circular logic at its best

Obama and the Bankers - An Imagined Conversation

-A year ago the administration calls in the heads of the top 11 banks
-The bankers are told they can't leave the room until they take Fed money
-the administrations limits salaries for top bankers
-the banks pay back the government loans they didn't want in the first place
-The administrations tries to force the banks to take direction from the administrations and threatens more control because they took federal money
-circular logic at its best

Wasted Lessons from AIG

And Greenberg was misspelled

FASB Changes Perpetuate Fair Value Lying

Your generalization using the condo example is short sighted. The shifting sand issue should have been uncovered if proper due diligence was undertaken resulting in the deal never being done. This has nothing to do with mtm. Forcing companies with large, longterm hold portfolios to take paper losses due to mark to market accounting is dealing in the make believe. As an example if I make investments with a hold to maturity strategy and are forced to mtm quarterly the volitility reflected in my financial statements would have me go from red ink to black and back depending on general market conditions. Would I have earned or lost cash - absolutely not. Rather when I actually sell or redeem those investments then I would reflect a real gain or loss. Now tell me again why mtm is a good thing?

Exclusive: Big Banks' Recent Profitability Due to AIG Scam?

Eliminating mark to market accounting would have eliminated so much of the game playing and yet the government refuses to take this action. It would be a no cost fix for most likely $1.8 trillion of mark to market losses. There has been a great deal of talk about eliminating the practice but no action. Would be interesting to know why.