Suspend Mark-To-Market--Now

In late 2007, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) changed the definition of mark-to-market accounting rules as they applied to the U.S. financial industry. The board forced financial firms and auditors to use "observable," market prices to value securities rather than models or cash flow. Within a year, the U.S. was in the middle of the worst pure financial panic in a hundred years. Coincidence? We think not.

On its surface, market-to-market or "fair value" accounting makes some superficial sense. Markets usually provide transparent and verifiable prices, so companies can't just contrive numbers to make their earnings look good.

The problem with mark-to-market is its failure to recognize that market prices for securities often deviate--sometimes substantially, but always ultimately temporarily--from the underlying fundamental value of the assets. Since markets are forward looking, mark-to-market forces financial firms to take hits to capital over something that "might" happen in the future, but has not happened yet. It's like forcing homeowners to come up with more capital when the weather man forecasts a hurricane because their homes might be destroyed.Full Story