It looks like the banks lobbying the SEC has gotten the desired results. The SEC has relaxed rules on “Mark to Market” accounting:

The three-page joint statement today from the SEC and the Financial Accounting Standards Board does not do away with fair value accounting provisions altogether.

But it gives companies more leeway to employ estimates and their own judgment in many cases when they deem the market to be “disorderly” or seized by liquidity problems. It also gives companies room to determine whether the impaired value of their assets is no longer temporary, a conclusion that could trigger massive write-downs.

Not to get in to the minutiae of this, but it appears that they largely gutted mark to market.

This will make any final reckoning worse.