mrbill

FASB Unlikely to Suspend Mark to Market

“All they had to do was switch the MBS from M2M to Mark to maturity and they would not have had any losses”

Right. The missing link: M2Maturity. Under this rule, there would have been no subprime fallout and alt-a/arm resets that are occurring today. Home prices would still be rising and consumers still spending. Oil would be at $300 a barrel, tomatoes at $12 a pound and we'd live happily ever after.

FASB Unlikely to Suspend Mark to Market

“Short sellers can use mark to market in order to destroy otherwise solvent banks by manipulating the dysfunctional OTC market”

Sure. Blame it on the short sellers.

“By performing bogus transactions that drastically reduced CDO values way below fair market values under normal conditions, target bank(s) will be forced to mark even their prestine assets intended for 20 or 30 years hold to fire-sale prices as if they have already sold those assets at said fire-sale prices”

As long as the transactions are legal, sounds to me like you should take advantage of them. Why not buy today and wait for a market recovery? Is it because the market might not recover as you would expect?

There's no such thing as below fair market. The price for anything is what someone is willing to pay for it. Apparently, you and many others are trying to use the government to artificially prop up your investments. All on the taxpayers' dime.

Stocks on the Verge of... Something

"Wasn’t it the CEO of Bank of America (BAC) who said they had plenty of capital, but took billions in TARP — who then said the dividend was safe, but then cut it in half — who subsequently said the dividend is now safe, but cut it again to one penny?"

Good point. Sadly most people, especially in the US have short term memories. In the US, not only can you fool us once, but several more times, and then some.

How the Government Forced BofA to Marry Merrill Lynch

B o A CEO lackey calls Merill CEO lackey right before merger...

BAC: Hey, I hear your numbers are bad.

MER: Huh? There good.

BAC: No there not.

MER: Are too.

BAC: Stop it! I say they're bad, if you disagree, well, the deal's off.

MER: WTF???

BAC: Listen dope. If they're not bad, then the deal can't go through and you won't get your bonus. Got it?

MER: ??? Okay, okay, I get it. The numbers are bad then, and we'll prove it.

BAC: Fantastic!

Next week, B o A lackey gets semi-official numbers, then calls Bernanke & Paulson....

BAC: Look dudes, this sh$$t ain't gonna happen.

B/P: What do you mean?

BAC: The numbers are bad and there's a clause!!! We are out of this. Sorry.

B/P: You know your reputation is on the line.

BAC: So what! I'm a banker LOL!

B/P: Haha! You're a CEO of a major bank, actually. But that's close enough. Fine, how much do you need?

BAC: (big grin) a Twenty ?

B/P: Hmm... well okay, $20 billion it is. We'll just grab it from the TARP funds.

BAC: Hey Thanks!

B/P: Don't thank us, thank the U.S. Tax payers.

BAC: ROFL!

B/P: LOL!!!!