Steve Forbes has a massive brainfart: "Here's How to End the Panic". His solution? Just sweep the crap mortgages under the rug. Presto!

Panic?

What panic?

I thought everything was gonna be fine?

I thought there was no housing bubble?

I thought the subprime fallout was contained?

But come on Steve-O. Junking the nation's accounting standards as the solution to the problem? ARE YOU F*CKING OUT OF YOUR MIND?

Yeah, that'll instill even greater confidence worldwide in the ol' USofA. Just fudge the numbers! Cook the books! Brilliant! The numbers aren't bad if you just say they're not bad! Crisis over!

Monkeys I tell ya. Monkeys. And the world may never trust the United States again.

Here's How to End the Panic
Steve Forbes

The Bush administration must take two steps immediately to quickly halt the unending, enervating credit crisis: shore up the anemic dollar and, for the time being, suspend "marking to market" those new financial instruments, such as packages of subprime mortgages.

The Treasury Department and the Fed should get together with the SEC, the Comptroller of the Currency and other bank regulators and announce that financial institutions for the next 12 months will no longer write down the value of exotic financial instruments (primarily packages of subprime mortgages).

Instead, writedowns will occur only when there have been actual losses on those assets. If a mortgage defaults, a bank will then--and only then--recognize the loss.