Mark-To-Market

One of the problems today is that banks are reluctant to lend to other banks, seemingly so because they are unsure of the borrowing bank's financial status.

One of the reasons for that caution is that the borrowing bank's balance sheet may be too weak to support the new loan. If so, one of the probable causes is the required write down of assets to their current estimated values from the acquisition value.

The Accounting Principles Board is responsible for this requirement which was installed after the Enron debacle.

Before then, a corporation simply amortized its losses over some period of years, maybe five years.

That way, the company could borrow again - provided it had adequate cash flow - and continue to survive.

In this emergency, both the new administration and the APB should consider an adjustment with protections to the mark to market requirement. A change here would help the credit markets flow again.