PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL, INC.  Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 3.
ACQUISITIONS AND DISPOSITIONS (continued) Acquisition of a portion of Union Bank of California’s Retirement Business On December 31, 2007, the Company acquired a portion of the Union Bank of California, N. A’s retirement business for $103 million of cash consideration.
In recording the transaction, the entire purchase price was allocated to other intangibles, which are reflected in “Other assets.
” Sale of Oppenheim Joint Ventures On July 12, 2007, the Company sold its 50% interest in its operating joint ventures Oppenheim Pramerica Fonds Trust GmbH and Oppenheim Pramerica Asset Management S. a. r. l. , which the Company accounted for under the equity method, to its partner Oppenheim S. C. A.  for $121 million.
These businesses establish, package and distribute mutual fund products to German and other European retail investors.
The Company recorded a pre-tax gain on sale of $37 million and related taxes of $22 million for the year ended December 31, 2007.
Discontinued Operations Income (loss) from discontinued businesses, including charges upon disposition, for the years ended December 31, are as follows:
## Table 0 ##
(1) In the second quarter of 2007, the Company announced its decision to exit the equity sales, trading and research operations of the Prudential Equity Group (“PEG”).
PEG’s operations were substantially wound down by June 30, 2007.
Included within the table above for the year ended December 31, 2007 is a $104 million pre-tax loss in connection with this decision, primarily related to employee severance costs.
(2) Reflects the income or loss from discontinued real estate investments, primarily related to gains recognized on the sale of real estate properties.
(3) In the second quarter of 2009, the Company entered into an agreement to sell its mutual fund and banking operations in Mexico.
This transaction closed in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Included within the table above for the year ended December 31, 2009 is $8 million of a pre-tax gain recorded in connection with the sale of this business.
(4) International securities operations include the European retail transaction-oriented stockbrokerage and related activities of Prudential Securities Group, Inc.
The year ended December 31, 2007 includes a $21 million tax benefit associated with the discontinued international securities operations.
(5) The sale of the Company’s healthcare business to Aetna was completed in 1999.
The loss the Company previously recorded upon the disposal of its healthcare business was reduced in each of the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007.
The reductions were primarily the result of favorable resolution of certain legal, regulatory and contractual matters.
Charges recorded in connection with the disposals of businesses include estimates that are subject to subsequent adjustment.4.
INVESTMENTS Fixed Maturities and Equity Securities The following tables provide information relating to fixed maturities and equity securities (excluding investments classified as trading) at December 31: 2009
## Table 1 ##
PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL, INC.  Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 20.
FAIR VALUE OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES (continued) Fair Value of Financial Instruments The Company is required by U. S.  GAAP to disclose the fair value of certain financial instruments including those that are not carried at fair value.
For the following financial instruments the carrying amount equals or approximates fair value: fixed maturities classified as available for sale, trading account assets supporting insurance liabilities, other trading account assets, equity securities, securities purchased under agreements to resell, short-term investments, cash and cash equivalents, accrued investment income, separate account assets, investment contracts included in separate account liabilities, securities sold under agreements to repurchase, and cash collateral for loaned securities, as well as certain items recorded within other assets and other liabilities such as broker-dealer related receivables and payables.
See Note 21 for a discussion of derivative instruments.
The following table discloses the Company’s financial instruments where the carrying amounts and fair values may differ:
## Table 2 ##
(1) Includes items carried at fair value under the fair value option.
The fair values presented above for those financial instruments where the carrying amounts and fair values may differ have been determined by using available market information and by applying market valuation methodologies, as described in more detail below.
Fixed Maturities, held to maturity The fair values of public fixed maturity securities are generally based on prices from third party pricing services, which are reviewed to validate reasonability.
However, for certain public fixed maturity securities and investments in private placement fixed maturity securities; this information is either not available or not reliable.
For these public fixed maturity securities the fair value is based on non-binding broker quotes, if available, or determined using internally developed values.
For private fixed maturities fair value is determined using a discounted cash flow model, which utilizes a discount rate based upon the average of spread surveys collected from private market intermediaries who are active in both primary and secondary transactions and takes into account, among other factors, the credit quality and industry sector of the issuer and the reduced liquidity associated with private placements.
In determining the fair value of certain fixed maturity securities, the discounted cash flow model may also use unobservable inputs, which reflect the Company’s own assumptions about the inputs market participants would use in pricing the security.
Commercial Mortgage and Other Loans The fair value of commercial mortgage and other loans, other than those held by the Company’s commercial mortgage operations, is primarily based upon the present value of the expected future cash flows discounted at the appropriate U. S.  Treasury rate or Japanese Government Bond rate for yen based loans, adjusted for the current market spread for similar quality loans.
The fair value of commercial mortgage and other loans held by the Company’s commercial mortgage operations is based upon various factors, including the terms of the loans, the principal exit markets for the loans, prevailing interest rates, and credit risk.
Policy Loans The fair value of U. S.  insurance policy loans is calculated using a discounted cash flow model based upon current U. S.  Treasury rates and historical loan repayment patterns, while Japanese insurance policy loans use the risk-free proxy based on the Yen LIBOR.
For group corporate- and trust-owned life insurance contracts and group universal life contracts, the fair value of the policy loans is the amount due as of the reporting date.
Wachovia Securities “lookback” option On December 31, 2009, the Company exercised its rights under the “lookback” option as it relates to its interest in the Wachovia Securities joint venture.
Prior to its exercise, the fair value of the “lookback” option was determined internally by using an approach that employs both Black-Scholes and binominal option pricing models, which includes inputs such as equity market volatilities, risk-free rates, dividend yields and counterparty credit risk, as well as an illiquidity discount.
At December 31, 2008, the carrying value of the “lookback” option was reflected within “Other assets.
” See Note 7 for additional information on the Company’s Investment in Wachovia Securities.
(1) Excludes the portion of 2009 other-than-temporary impairments recorded in “Other comprehensive income (loss),” representing any difference between the fair value of the impaired debt security and the net present value of its projected future cash flows at the time of impairment.
(2) Amounts exclude credit related losses through sales of investments pursuant to our credit risk and portfolio management objectives.
Net trading gains on sales and maturities of fixed maturity securities of $470 million in 2009 were primarily due to sales of government bonds in our Gibraltar Life and Japanese Life Planner operations and sales within our Individual Annuities segment.
Sales of fixed maturity securities in our Individual Annuities segment were primarily due to transfers of investments out of our general account and into separate accounts relating to an automatic rebalancing element embedded in the living benefit features of some of our variable annuity products.
Net trading gains on sales and maturities of fixed maturity investments of $112 million in 2008, were primarily related to sales of government bonds in our Gibraltar Life and Japanese Life Planner operations.
None of the gross losses on sales and maturities in 2009 and 2008 related to asset-backed securities collateralized by sub-prime mortgages.
See “—General Account Investments—Fixed Maturity Securities—Asset-Backed Securities” for additional information regarding our exposure to sub-prime mortgages.
See below for additional information regarding the other-than-temporary impairments of fixed maturity securities in 2009 and 2008.
Net realized losses on equity securities were $402 million in 2009, of which other-than-temporary impairments were $389 million and net trading losses on sales of equity securities were $13 million.
Net trading losses in 2009 were primarily due to sales within our Gibraltar Life operations.
Net realized losses on equity securities were $941 million in 2008, of which other-than-temporary impairments were $815 million and net trading losses on sales of equity securities were $126 million.
Net trading losses in 2008 were primarily due to sales within our Gibraltar Life and Life Planner operations.
See below for additional information regarding the other-than-temporary impairments of equity securities in 2009 and 2008.
Net realized gains on derivatives were $171 million in 2009, compared to net realized gains of $339 million in 2008.
The net derivative gains in 2009 primarily reflect net gains of $376 million on embedded derivatives associated with certain variable annuity contracts, net of the impact of our hedging program, mainly in our Individual Annuities Segment.
This benefit was driven by a marketperceived increase in our own risk of non-performance.
For additional information regarding these embedded derivatives and our hedging programs, see “—Results of Operations for Financial Services Businesses by Segment—U.
S.  Retirement Solutions and Investment Management Division—Individual Annuities.
” Also contributing to the net derivative gains in 2009 were gains of $196 million on embedded derivatives associated with certain externally managed investments in the European market and net gains of $87 million on mark-to-market adjustments from credit derivatives.
Partially offsetting these gains were net mark-to-market losses of $376 million on interest rate derivatives used to manage duration and net losses of $121 million on currency derivatives used to hedge foreign denominated investments.
The net derivative gains in 2008 primarily reflect net mark-to-market gains of $985 million on interest rate derivatives used to manage duration, net gains of $226 million on currency derivatives used to hedge foreign investments in our domestic investment portfolio and net gains of $124 million related to equity market hedges used in our asset management business.
Partially offsetting these gains were net mark-to-market losses of $621 million on embedded derivatives associated with certain externally managed investments in the European market and net losses of $456 million on embedded derivatives and related hedge positions associated with certain variable annuity contracts.
For information regarding our externally managed investments in the European market, see “—General Account Investments—Fixed Maturity Securities—Asset-Backed Securities.
” Net realized losses on other investments were $558 million in 2009, primarily related to $317 million of increases to commercial mortgage and other loan loss reserves.
The remaining $241 million of net realized losses on other investments was primarily driven by mark-to-market losses on mortgage loans within our commercial mortgage operations and losses on investment real estate in our asset management operations, as well as $48 million of other other-than-temporary impairments on joint ventures and partnerships and real estate investments.
Net realized losses on other investments were $166 million in 2008, primarily related to mark-to-market losses on mortgage loans within our divested commercial mortgage securitization operations due to instability in the commercial real estate market during 2008.
For additional information regarding our commercial mortgage and other loan loss reserves see “—General Account Investments—Commercial Mortgage and Other Loans—Commercial Mortgage and Other Loan Quality.
” During 2009 we recorded other-than-temporary impairments of $1,611 million in earnings, compared to total other-than-temporary impairments of $2,533 million recorded in earnings in 2008.
The following tables set forth, for the periods indicated, the composition of other-than-temporary impairments recorded in earnings attributable to the Financial Services Businesses by asset type, and for fixed maturity securities, by reason.
## Table 3 ##
(1) Excludes the portion of 2009 other-than-temporary impairments recorded in “Other comprehensive income (loss),” representing any difference between the fair value of the impaired debt security and the net present value of its projected future cash flows at the time of impairment.
(2) Includes other-than-temporary impairments relating to investment real estate and investments in joint ventures and partnerships.
REPUBLIC SERVICES, INC.  NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS—(Continued) high quality financial institutions.
Such balances may be in excess of FDIC insured limits.
To manage the related credit exposure, we continually monitor the credit worthiness of the financial institutions where we have deposits.
Concentrations of credit risk with respect to trade accounts receivable are limited due to the wide variety of customers and markets in which we provide services, as well as the dispersion of our operations across many geographic areas.
We provide services to small-container, large-container, municipal and residential, and energy services customers in the United States and Puerto Rico.
We perform ongoing credit evaluations of our customers, but generally do not require collateral to support customer receivables.
We establish an allowance for doubtful accounts based on various factors including the credit risk of specific customers, age of receivables outstanding, historical trends, economic conditions and other information.
Accounts Receivable, Net Accounts receivable represent receivables from customers for collection, transfer, recycling, disposal, energy services and other services.
Our receivables are recorded when billed or when the related revenue is earned, if earlier, and represent claims against third parties that will be settled in cash.
The carrying value of our receivables, net of the allowance for doubtful accounts and customer credits, represents their estimated net realizable value.
Provisions for doubtful accounts are evaluated on a monthly basis and are recorded based on our historical collection experience, the age of the receivables, specific customer information and economic conditions.
We also review outstanding balances on an account-specific basis.
In general, reserves are provided for accounts receivable in excess of 90 days outstanding.
Past due receivable balances are written-off when our collection efforts have been unsuccessful in collecting amounts due.
The following table reflects the activity in our allowance for doubtful accounts for the years ended December 31:

<table><tr><td></td><td>2009</td><td>2008</td><td>2007</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="3">(in millions)</td></tr><tr><td>Equity sales, trading and research operations-1</td><td>$3</td><td>$-1</td><td>$-101</td></tr><tr><td>Real estate investments sold or held for sale-2</td><td>22</td><td>42</td><td>63</td></tr><tr><td>Mexican asset management operations-3</td><td>12</td><td>-13</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>International securities operations-4</td><td>-1</td><td>-1</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>Healthcare operations-5</td><td>—</td><td>2</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>Income (loss) from discontinued operations before income taxes</td><td>36</td><td>29</td><td>-13</td></tr><tr><td>Income tax expense (benefit)(4)</td><td>17</td><td>11</td><td>-33</td></tr><tr><td>Income from discontinued operations, net of taxes</td><td>$19</td><td>$18</td><td>$20</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="5">2009</td></tr><tr><td></td><td> Amortized Cost</td><td> Gross Unrealized Gains</td><td> Gross Unrealized Losses</td><td> Fair Value</td><td>Other-than- temporary impairments in AOCI-3</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="5">(in millions)</td></tr><tr><td> Fixed maturities, available for sale</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>U.S. Treasury securities and obligations of U.S. government authorities and agencies</td><td>$8,254</td><td>$384</td><td>$370</td><td>$8,268</td><td>$—</td></tr><tr><td>Obligations of U.S. states and their political subdivisions</td><td>1,389</td><td>28</td><td>42</td><td>1,375</td><td>—</td></tr><tr><td>Foreign government bonds</td><td>39,795</td><td>1,549</td><td>135</td><td>41,209</td><td>—</td></tr><tr><td>Corporate securities</td><td>89,915</td><td>4,377</td><td>2,746</td><td>91,546</td><td>-43</td></tr><tr><td>Asset-backed securities-1</td><td>12,587</td><td>155</td><td>2,504</td><td>10,238</td><td>-1,716</td></tr><tr><td>Commercial mortgage-backed securities</td><td>11,036</td><td>202</td><td>220</td><td>11,018</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Residential mortgage-backed securities-2</td><td>11,275</td><td>428</td><td>132</td><td>11,571</td><td>-11</td></tr><tr><td>Total fixed maturities, available for sale</td><td>$174,251</td><td>$7,123</td><td>$6,149</td><td>$175,225</td><td>$-1,769</td></tr><tr><td> Equity securities, available for sale</td><td>$6,106</td><td>$1,014</td><td>$225</td><td>$6,895</td><td></td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="2"> December 31, 2009</td><td colspan="2"> December 31, 2008</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2"></td><td> Carrying Amount</td><td> Fair  Value</td><td> Carrying Amount</td><td> Fair  Value</td></tr><tr><td colspan="4"> (in millions)</td></tr><tr><td> Assets:</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Fixed maturities, held to maturity</td><td>$5,120</td><td>$5,197</td><td>$3,808</td><td>$3,832</td></tr><tr><td>Commercial mortgage and other loans-1</td><td>31,384</td><td>30,693</td><td>33,114</td><td>30,570</td></tr><tr><td>Policy loans</td><td>10,146</td><td>11,837</td><td>9,703</td><td>12,697</td></tr><tr><td>Wachovia Securities “lookback” option</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>580</td><td>2,280</td></tr><tr><td> Liabilities:</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Policyholder account balances—investment contracts</td><td>$73,674</td><td>$74,353</td><td>$69,687</td><td>$69,933</td></tr><tr><td>Short-term and long-term debt-1</td><td>24,159</td><td>24,054</td><td>30,825</td><td>27,051</td></tr><tr><td>Debt of consolidated VIEs</td><td>413</td><td>239</td><td>423</td><td>167</td></tr><tr><td>Bank customer liabilities</td><td>1,523</td><td>1,538</td><td>1,356</td><td>1,354</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td rowspan="3"></td><td colspan="2"> Year Ended December 31,</td></tr><tr><td> 2009</td><td> 2008</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"> (in millions)</td></tr><tr><td> Other-than-temporary impairments recorded in earnings—Financial Services Businesses-1</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Public fixed maturity securities</td><td>$1,022</td><td>$1,549</td></tr><tr><td>Private fixed maturity securities</td><td>152</td><td>130</td></tr><tr><td>Total fixed maturity securities</td><td>1,174</td><td>1,679</td></tr><tr><td>Equity securities</td><td>389</td><td>815</td></tr><tr><td>Other invested assets-2</td><td>48</td><td>39</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>$1,611</td><td>$2,533</td></tr></table>

Question: What's the current increasing rate of Income tax expense (benefit)(4)? (in %)
Answer: 0.54545