I want to take a moment to relate some information that has come to my attention recently, which has the potential to affect everyone on this planet; but particularly those in the united States of America, since they will first be affected by this.
Over the course of the last couple of decades, the financial managers have been allowed to regulate themselves. There was an implicit mandate to create a boom in the housing market in order to bolster the economy.
In order to create this housing boom, a variety of “exotic” financial instruments were employed, which enable them to leverage their assets, and give more loans than they would have generally been able to give. Most of the troubled financial institutions of today were using “off-balance sheet” entities to hold these financial instruments, many of which were very risky.
Well, it looks as if the widely abused loop-hole that allowed them to keep things off of their balance sheet back-fired in an awesome way. Now the new financial accounting standard regulations FAS 140 are forcing them to move these entities back onto their balance sheet and realize any gains or losses.
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