Are rising financial markets in the best interests of the financial news industry?

 

Sales of new homes rose in February

for the first time in seven months

…another sign that the housing market is thawing

 

New-Home Sales Rise 4.7%

The Wall Street Journal

March 26, 2009

Why would a mainstream news story entitled

New-Home Sales Rise 4.7%

not mention year over year sales were down 41%

or that January 2009 new home sales fell 10%

to the lowest level since reporting began in 1963

48.2% below January 2008 estimates?

 

Who controls the past controls the future

 

Who controls the present controls the past

 

George Orwell

If $100 loses 50% and then rises 5%

how should most feel about having $52.50 instead of $100

after enduring conjured platitudes?

 

If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed

 

 If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed

 

Mark Twain

FASB

The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)

 changed the mark-to-market rules last week

 

First, they suspended the mark-to-market rules

for assets in distressed markets

 

Second, they widened the definition

 of "temporary" impairments of troubled assets

 

The board decided to make the new changes

effective immediately

 

This will allow banks to write up their paper

and it happens before Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

starts putting taxpayer money at risk

 

…The information will still be there

but the way it will be recorded will not be reflected

in the profit and loss statement…

 

Expect to see a pop in valuations

 

…The International Accounting Standards Board

sent out a scathing press release

 

I guess from that we should assume

that European banks will not be so fortunate

as their US counterparts

 

John Mauldin

FrontLineThoughts.com

 

If some accounting methods inflate financial valuations

increasing stakeholder and insider worth

 

while some mainstream news organizations

report and/or promote what may be disingenuous information

to justify what could be inflated prices

 

why wouldn’t targeted political contributions

influence accounting legislation

and regulatory enforcement?

What some invent

the rest enlarge

 

Jonathan Swift

FASB

The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)

 changed the mark-to-market rules last week

 

First, they suspended the mark-to-market rules

for assets in distressed markets

 

Second, they widened the definition

 of "temporary" impairments of troubled assets

 

The board decided to make the new changes

effective immediately

 

This will allow banks to write up their paper

and it happens before Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

starts putting taxpayer money at risk

 

…The information will still be there

but the way it will be recorded will not be reflected

in the profit and loss statement…

 

Expect to see a pop in valuations

 

…The International Accounting Standards Board

sent out a scathing press release

 

I guess from that we should assume

that European banks will not be so fortunate

as their US counterparts

 

John Mauldin

FrontLineThoughts.com

 

If some accounting methods inflate financial valuations

increasing stakeholder and insider worth

 

while some mainstream news organizations

report and/or promote what may be disingenuous information

to justify what could be inflated prices

 

why wouldn’t targeted political contributions

influence accounting legislation

and regulatory enforcement?

What some invent

the rest enlarge

 

Jonathan Swift