this is the absolute bottom..., page-68

grandcaruso,

"also, its not just about toxic assets and houses like Barnsty & yourself have referred in your discussions. mark to market come into play with commercial properties, credit deriatives, CDO's, deferred tax assets etc etc. i mean how do you value a train, a motorway, CDOs when there are simply no buyers yet the possibility of default on the loans may not be a problem."

I understand that, however if the motorway is a good money making asset or if the train is a good money making asset then there will always be a market, could be lower or higher. If no-one is willing to buy a good asset then it can't be that good can it? As for CDO's they shouldn't exist. Financial companies need to go back to basics and not come up with these fancy instruments that complicate things further. The reason CDO's went so bad is that no one knew what was in them, not even the people who were selling these products knew what was in them. Credit Default swaps is another product that shouldn't exist. Until this is all sorted out then we are nowhere near a bottom. When my parents bought their first home they had to have at least 25% deposit. Why have the banks relaxed this rule and let values of assets get so inflated to the point where the whole system is on the verge of collapse? GREED. More profits, keep the shareholders happy, increase our bonuses, etc, etc...

If there is no market then the assets are worthless. If there is no possibility of default and if the assets income return is good and the debt they have gotten themselves into is not excessive then there will be no problem. Unfortunately this is not the case with many assets.