Word: toxication
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...banks, Washington needs to get toxic assets off their balance sheets. That's easily said but not so easily done...
...obscure accounting rule that is the subject of intense lobbying by representatives of the banking industry ahead of congressional hearings on Thursday on the matter. A change to that rule could drain some of the banks' red ink and possibly make it easier for them to off-load the toxic assets. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
...moment, there are few buyers for the toxic assets that are poisoning Citigroup, Bank of America and other major financial players. The unsellable loans sit on the banks' balance sheets at a huge loss, priced from zero to an optimistic 60% of what they might have sold for before the crash...
...time of pessimistic forecasts and rising fear, many toxic assets are probably worth more than the bank models or credit-default-swap indexes suggest. For example, a recent reading of the ABX index puts the value of even the highest-rated subprime mortgage bonds created in 2007 at only 27% of their precrunch prices. Yes, Americans are behind on their mortgages, but even the most pessimistic prognostications do not predict that 73% of home loans will become worthless. (See pictures of the dangers of printing money...
...growing number of regulators seem to think some relaxation of the rules may make sense. The top U.S. banking supervisor, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, tells TIME he is in favor of letting the banks mark back up the value of some of their toxic assets. "I think there are some changes that ought to be made," Dugan says. Mark-to-market accounting is a problem, he says, for illiquid assets because "those things have just stopped trading altogether." Dugan does not support doing away with mark-to-market entirely; not even industry lobbyists want that. But his deputy...