That’s the problem....Hard to establish market value when there are NO bids for the toxic instruments.
Seems like suspending the mark to market rules till the clouds clear and these instruments start trading on some kind of rational basis would save many firms.
I believe suspending the mark to market would risk the investor running for the door. May as well just shut the market down as has been done in the past. Bottom line, investors do not like book values that do not reflect reality.