The Market Ticker: Citigroup, GE and More
An excerpt below, full article here.
Oh by the way, here’s another reason that Citigroup posted these numbers:
“Citigroup posted a $2.5 billion gain because of an accounting change adopted in 2007. Under the rule, companies are allowed to record any declines in the market value of their own debt as an unrealized gain. The rule reflects the possibility that a company could buy back its own debt at a discount, which under traditional accounting methods would result in a profit.”
If you want to talk about obscene, that is obscene balance sheet game-playing. What this means is that a firm that has its credit quality decrease, and therefore the trading price of its bonds go down (meaning the market thinks the firm is more likely to default) is able to claim that change as a profit!
