The tipoff for how screwed up we got is in the articles description of fair value. It’s says “the arcane accounting rule known as “mark-to-market” where companies have to report what the fair value of their investments were if they sold them at the current time”. Eh. Eh. – Arcane?

Yes Mark-to-Market revealed that the companies were foolish in their investments but that’s what reality does sometimes.

I wonder if I took the ‘book’ value of my home (based on a professional appraisal of $1,000,000 from a year ago) would they lend me that much or would they now insist that it was worth much less because of the mark-to-market value.

Those SOB’s make up the rules as they go along – have you noticed?