#OWS: Mark banks to market or no more bailouts.

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Want to see Blankfein’s head on a metaphorical pike?  Want accountability?  Justice?

It’s called “mark-to-market” accounting.

Listen to Ilargi:  

It’s perfectly defensible for a government to lend money to a bank in trouble that is important to its economy, in order to try and save. However, it borders on criminal negligence, if it isn’t outright criminal behavior, to lend that money without being perfectly aware of what assets that bank holds.

A bank could have 100 times more debt than it receives in bail-out money. But we wouldn’t know about that today, we’re not allowed to know. Both the US (FASB 157) and the European Union (IFRS 9) have accounting (non-)principles in place that say it’s perfectly alright for a financial institution to hold assets in its books at 100 cents on the dollar that have a market value of 70% of that, or 50%, or even 5%. It has therefore no obligation to reveal even to its shareholders what its true financial situation is.

Fraudulent accounting is why banks pass stress tests with flying colors then implode weeks later.  We’re dumping money into black holes.  If the banks want to take our money, they have to mark all their assets to market value.  Mark-to-fantasy accounting is, as Ilargi says, “criminal.”  And a total waste of taxpayer funded bailout money, a never-ending money pit.

Mark-to-market is instant karma.

…a bank should never ever be allowed to sit on its debt and mark it to fantasy and then also receive funding from our governments, whether in bail-outs, hand-outs, loans, special facilities’ windows at our central banks, or any other sort of funding, nothing of the kind.

We need to tell our politicians that they can no longer give even one single penny of ours to any institution that hasn’t marked all of its assets to market. No exceptions.

Let the sun shine on these blood-sucking freaks.  It couldn’t happen to nicer people.

Late update:

Merkozy’s inspiring body language.

Apparently French/Belgian concern Dexia scored highest on the recent Euro stress tests just prior to imploding, followed closely in the stress test health rankings by Intesa San Paolo of Italy, which just got downgraded, among many other Euro-trash banks, with a negative outlook.

No worries.  The Bank of England will…uh…what?  Right, throw more money at it, old chap.  BoE Governer Mervyn King is not in the least concerned about “the most serious financial crisis we’ve seen at least since the 1930s, if not ever,” whereas George Soros says out loud, “People don’t realize that the system has actually collapsed,” while muttering something about a “Soviet-style collapse.”

The IMF advisor dude gives us two to three weeks before European Armageddon, et al., so he is utterly comforted by Merkozy’s warmth and mutual affection.  Not a care in the world.  It’s all Campbell’s Soup.  Mm, mm, good!

I’ve got boxes and boxes and boxes of scientific papers representing what’s left of my former life that should make good fire-starting material.  That reminds me to barter my nail clippers for some personal safety sidearms.