>Mark to market is why the institutions that went under already went under. They were cash positive, but couldn't meet their reserve requirements when the marke

>Mark to market is why the institutions that went under already went under. They were cash positive, but couldn't meet their reserve requirements when the markets for their assets disappeared. Yes, and more will have to disappear to resolve this situation. The sooner the better. >Mark to market is absurd for illiquid assets. The fact that I can't sell my house today doesn't mean that it's worth $0. Unfortunately it means precisely that. The home is worth $0 (or less) when offered for sale on the market. Don't confuse the market's valuation with some other personal valuation of "worth". Long-term investors holding cash may justify their purchases by using time-averaging, but they are very rare and getting their attention is difficult unless you have 100s if not 1000s of homes to sell in blocks.