The scandal, WTF-ery and double-taking comes about when the same rules are applied to their own obligations, whereby if your credit deteriorates you book a profit and if it improves you book a loss.
But, of course, tweaking accounting rules in good times to overstate the upside and in bad times to understate the downside is, apparently, par for the course. There wasn't a lot of outrage when the US Congress debated relaxing mark-to-market rules in late 2008... By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
There wasn't a lot of outrage...
The ignorance stems from them trying to talk about it from that "common sense" and "Appeal to Authority" stance we were talking about the other day?
But I really don't know.
That is obvious every time you see a commenter asking for advice on his 401(k)... By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
