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Because I received a message via e-mail that my previous post on mark-to-market was misleading, I thought I would clarify what is happening with FAS 157 and provide some good links.
The long and short of the rule is it gives more specific guidance as to when a market is distressed and an asset must not [...]

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This comes via Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman and is an even-handed review of what just happened:
As widely expected FASB modified fair value accounting rules. The key seems to be for assets for which there is not a market. The last traded price does not have to be used. Rather other [...]

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Before I provide the links I want to add some clarifying points about previous articles.
Regarding the story about Larry Summers, Summers did not dismiss the employee in question. So, the post title is rather misleading. My apologies. Rather, Summers condoned an environment in which large bets on derivatives were permitted. Harvard has since [...]

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I am sure you realize by now that I believe Larry Summers is soft on derivatives, soft on regulation and soft on banking executives.  He exemplifies the self-regulatory zeal of the previous boom.  Given his indifference to responsible regulatory oversight of derivatives and other markets, the following account, now public does seem to fit a [...]

The OCC’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities
for the Fourth Quarter 2008 is out. And derivatives exposure is way up. U.S. commercial banks now have a massive $200 trillion in derivatives exposure, which is 14x U.S. GDP.

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Story from Investor’s Business Daily:
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for “new rules of the game” on Thursday, including a systemic-risk regulator, stronger capital cushions for banks, and more disclosure from hedge funds.
The broad-brush vision also would have derivatives such as credit default swaps trade via a central clearinghouse. Higher standards for money-market mutual funds — [...]

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This comes via Angus Robertson of Research Recap:
The performance of auto loan securities has been mixed, but Standard & Poor’s Credit Research points out that overall ratings on the ABS have been remarkably stable in spite of the recession.
In a new report on the sector, S & P says that delinquencies and write-downs among certain auto loan [...]

This video from the Charlie Rose show should give one a fairly complete view of most of the relevant finance and political issues surrounding the AIG situation. (hat tip Calculated Risk)

Participants include bank analyst Meredith Whitney and Gretchen Morgenson of the NY Times, and Carol Loomis of Fortune. Why is Hank Greenberg in this panel? It seems incongruous since most of these problems happened while he was the head of AIG. Very strange.

As I mentioned in my post, “TALF: A bailout if one reads the fine print” the TALF is not a program ONLY for U.S. institutions. It is a vehicle for re-starting the U.S. asset-backed securities credit markets. In fact, the first recipient of TALF money may be Nissan Motors, a Japanese company (Hat tip Marc):

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This comes via the website The Agonist (Hat tip Scott).  I have bolded the important bits:
So what are AIG’s arguments for making these bonus payments?

All 450 employees of AIG in London, where the derivatives contracts were booked and managed, signed retention contracts at the request of management in early 2008. This was at a time [...]