wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt . Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." Clueless Americans are living in a Potemkin villiage as slaves while on the hilltop, the Oligarchs amusedly look down from their mansions.  "Knowledge Makes A Man Unfit To Be A Slave" - Frederick Douglass i think the oligarchs start another block up btw and they are always slaving away one would hope b/c the hood would go to hell in a handbasket fast if they weren't keeping the checks in the mail and the working serfs employed... why should companies (banks) have to value the assets they hold at today's value when they can inflate their balance sheet with the original purchase price of the assets , which in turn makes financial analysis all but impossible, which further skews the price of any publicly traded company's share price what would happen if all the TBTF banks were forced at open of business tomorrow to fairly value all the assets they hold, including those held off balance sheet as level II and III assets ?  would the stock market crash ? would the fed print even more money to prop the whole mess back