Unregulated Hedge Funds...one of the worst creations in financial history, unless you are ultra rich then they kick ass.

This being America what will go down is that everyone who's been getting even fatter for the last 8 years will have their asses(ts) covered and the rest of us will be footing the bill for the next forty years. Congress will hand over a black check to the Bush Administration who will see it as a "severence package" for themselves when leave office here in a few months.The way it will be sold to us will be "A tough pill to swallow for the good of America" and the common rabble, whom inevitably only know & think what corporate television tells them to know, will eat it up and call people who were opposed to it America hatin' Socialists. Some poor upper management hack will undoubtedly get nailed in an audit and have to spend 12 months at Camp Cupcake while becoming a convenient scapegoat.

That's my prediction.

Nice analogy. While it sounds like fiction, it may not be far from the truth.

As simple as it seems, a screwball accounting rule, Mark to Market has been a big player in all of this. Forcing companies to book present paper losses on assets they intend to keep long term, which will have considerable variance in value over time, has forced the holders of these mortgage backed securities to take a bath.

It could be a good thing for the U.S. to grab this paper on the cheap and sit on it as I think the worst of it will be over within 12 months regarding the crazy investor loans, option and subprime ARMS etc...most of the toxic stuff has/is or will shortly be in default. What's left at that point will be a pretty solid, long-term investment with responsible people who will have no problems paying the mortgage...the problem with this accounting rule from what I understand is time, it doesn't allow for market variances to work themselves out. That works both ways as they were booking huge fantom profits from these mortgage portfolios for many years, running up stock prices and bonus' along the way now the piper is getting paid back big time.

I'm not an accountant, nor would I ever want to be one but this rule seems like it could be changed quickly and would result in a much clearer picture of the true condition of a company holding this type of paper at a given point in time. I am all ears for some beancounter to educate me further on this "rule" or what would be a better "rule" so fire away...cheers.

[censored] or be Pucked if you're right of center....

.02

Mf