If there is one thing that buyers and sellers in structured finance can still agree on it is that mark-to-market accounting has utterly failed. The fact that investment banks have clubbed together to create a fund to mop up forced sales from ABCP conduit and SIV vehicles indicates the extent of the destruction it has caused. Much as the banks involved do not want this action to be compared with the bail-out of LTCM, the objectives are the same: to prop up the value of assets and avoid a fire sale.
This move...
