Many Republicans think valuation fantasy games might be just the thing to save the banking system:
Focus turns to 'mark to market' accounting rules
Some in Congress want to lift a requirement that mortgage securities be reported at market value. Opponents worry that values would be overstated. A U.S. accounting board considers the issue today.
By Tom Petruno, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer - October 1, 2008
An angry debate over accounting rules for banks may be coming to a head.Also, as I wrote yesterday, a piece by Pam Martens in Counterpunch pointed out that the bailout bill would allow banks immediately to operate with zero reserves. In other words, you could have a bank filled with worthless assets that could continue to make loans against them.
All year, many bankers have said it was unfair that accounting standards required them to use market value when reporting the value of mortgage securities they own. The frazzled market, they said, was unrealistically pessimistic about the assets' long-term worth.
Markdowns of mortgage assets have devastated the balance sheets of leading banks.
Some in Congress now want to suspend "mark-to-market" accounting altogether and give lenders much more leeway in valuing mortgage securities at levels that, in theory, more realistically reflect what the assets would return over time.
Accounting purists say a rule change would raise the risk that the banks would resort to fantasy accounting -- "mark to make-believe" -- that would overstate the value of their assets to investors. ...
Fantasy accounting? Worthless assets? Sounds like more of the same. What does Obama have to say about that? Oh, he's for it. Oy.
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