More on Mark-to-Market

First, a couple links.

My friend John Tamny has an article today at RealClearMarkets in defense of mark-to-market. He seems to be saying that it isn't mark-to-market that failed, but government intervention in the mortgage market that has made those assets impossible to price.

Bob Murphy linked to this blogpost that seems to agree with my position, but gets deeper into the details. Bob calls it the "definitive" post on the issue. He exaggerates, but it's still worth reading.

Second, is the fact that suspending or rescending MTM has virtually no chance of happening. Barack Obama and the Democrats could not support a bill that went against their narrative of "Government Good/Wall Street Bad". Suspending MTM would be an admission that government oversight had failed and that regulation itself was a major culprit in the banking crisis.