When stupidity or duplicity or both ruin that for all of our citizens, then we”ve failed to pass along the bubble in a good sense. Fractional reserve banking and fiat money fall into the same bucket if you take the issue to an extreme.

Yes, please let me say in ALL CAPS THAT FAIR VALUE ACCOUNTING IS NOT THE PROBLEM. I think that FVA was a reasonable response by the audit industry/sec to an increasingly opaque OTC market structure. That said, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

By allowing the audit profession to implement an ideal solution in FAS 157, we must deal with the consequences of that in literally writing down trillions of dollars in capital. Thus leverage must come down, credit availability, etc.

Does that not equal global public deflation?? Leveraged by CDS and broadcast on CNBC.

Just like the Options Accounting scandal — it took over a decade to overcome self-interested CEOs’ and handmaiden Congress-critters’ resistance — the response to Enron was actually to create a sanctioned fig leaf to hide pudenda such as the $49 billion dollars that magically appeared on Citi’s books — one day: no big deal, no need to account for it; the next: well, I guess we have a problem.

If IRA wants to stand up for investors’ ability to make smart choices in financial investments, the beacon of clarity ought to be the most important. Arguably, without the obfuscation of gamesmanship in FASB 155, muddle-headed regulation of AIG and laissez-faire “regulation” by the Fed, we could have avoided much or all of the excesses that originated in our wanton expansion of debt.

Point 3. As long as “short term fair value of assets” is disclosed, adjustments in regulations may be prove useful —— Only if Point 1 is occurring.

Point 4. An actual stimulus wouldn’t hurt, but apparently there is no plan for a serious “real” stimulus.
A bunch of projects don’t bother me, just don’t call them an immediate stimulus. Hell, give a billion dollars to every homeless person.

“I agree. Bad market structure choices are the problem. Indeed, you could say that FVA was a response to OTC. Please post my reply. Not near PC.”

Thanks, Chris.

FVA isn’t perfect, but it is better than the alternatives. Remember, no accounting method can alter the underlying cash flows of the instruments. Those cash flows are the real problem.

No more throwing money down a drain and wondering how deep the hole is. No more blind speculation. Investment would be based on real numbers, instead of PR releases and footnotes.

I would sum up by saying you are long winded and missing the point. I assume everyone involved purposely misses the point, because transparency would prevent capitalists from bilking the rest of us.

Let’s not forget that Pelosi was holding talks last year about ways to tax 401ks:

http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/83/58.php