JWM: You’re a finance guy, right? Do you find it interesting that they no longer report M3? M1 and M2 are still there, but good ‘ol M3 isn’t. Not trying to put on my paranoid conspiracist hat or anything, but…
I’m also curious as to what you think of FASB’s role in all of this, specifically SFAS 140/QSPE accounting rules. QSPE (Qualifying Special Purpose Entities) accounting was behind the Enron nonsense and has now reared it’s ugly head again in the derivatives market. While I think that the ratings agencies bear a lot of responsibility for this mess by handing out AAA ratings willy-nilly, I also think FASB played a large part as well.
Lastly, I have been watching the monoline insurance market for the last couple of months. I am waiting for one of the big monoline players to bite the dust. If that happens (and I am not saying it will), things will get really interesting.
