"Investors focused on a meeting of the Financial Accounting Standards Board Thursday morning, when the group’s directors relaxed mark-to-market rules – a step that could encourage banks to trade their credit bets more freely and thereby encourage greater lending activity to spur the broader economy.
FASB will now allow companies to use their judgment to a greater extent in determining the “fair value” of their assets. The board also made it easier for companies to avoid having to take impairment charges against earnings when they suffer losses on their investments."
So now companies can use their judgment? The same companies that have previously showed us their complete lack of good judgment? How does this make sense? No wonder the market is up today.