Mark to Market to Buy a Fat Pig -- What Do You Want To Know?

[flwyd]

I've been absorbing a lot of news and blogs about the current financial crisis and about financial systems over the past few weeks. I feel like blogging what I've learned to help my adoring readers understand the situation. Yet I know that I tend to think about undertaking such explanations and then getting overwhelmed by the amount I want to say

Comments

[dr_tectonic]

If I were informed about the situation at more than a casual level, are there actions I could take that would have a substantial impact on my current or future well-being? (I have some retirement funds, they're all TIAA/CREF and not easily accessible to do anything with them, and I'm not really planning on trying to do anything with them for another three decades.)

My current assumption is that the answer is "no", and that this is a situation, much like 9/11, where more information has at best a marginal benefit, and could do significant (emotional) harm by making me all upset about something I really can't affect, and so, like the dangers posed by nearby supernovae, asteroid impacts, random spree killers, rampaging sewer alligators, and the like, it's really best to just ignore it for the most part.

[mackys]

What is a reasonable estimate for the ACTUAL value of the mortgage-backed "junk" securities that $810 billion of my tax dollars bought?