The U.S. SEC has taken a significant step in relaxing mark-to-market rules -- not doing away with them completely as some have been arguing, but allowing banks to value mortgage backed securities with models that nearer reflect their cash-flow worth rather than basing values from fire-sale prices in a non-functioning market. The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) also pledged additional guidance, and the FDIC may lift deposit insurance notably -- to $250k from the current $100. These efforts are encouraging, while a second vote on a modified TARP bill is also likely before the week's end. One of the central lessons from the 1930s Great Depression era is not to let key banks fail and maintain depositors’ confidence in the banking system. Jim Rogers, one of the founders of the Quantum Fund, has recently been vocal in his view that the authorities should in fact stand aside to let the banking sector and economy endure a sharp, but what he thinks would be short, crash, from which a new start could begin. He points to historic examples, but none of his examples were economies anywhere near as financialised as the U.S. and most developed-nation economies are today, which makes the laizze-faire argument a significantly more risky and politically untenable one.
Al Bawaba
