Tuesday, September 30, 2008

This Is a Really Stupid Idea

From Bloomberg:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board may issue additional guidance on fair-value accounting rules, people familiar with the matter said.

The SEC may say companies can rely more on assumptions such as expected cash flows in assessing how much assets are worth, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plans haven't been completed. The guidance pertains to a requirement that banks review their assets each quarter and write them down if values have declined.


That's right -- let's start making shit up. Whenever we don't like what the market says, we just make up new rules until the market is more to our liking.