Willem Buiter: Banking System in North Atlantic Probably Insolvent

``Buiter suspects that the banks as a whole are insolvent even if they hold assets to maturity... Assuming that Buiter is correct, then efforts to relax mark-to-market accounting are completely counterproductive. As discussed here and in the financial media, it serves to heighten mistrust by making financial statements less verifiable, and worse, even trying to put a fig leaf over this mess will not improve the picture sufficiently.''