According to the New York Times Morgan Stanley uncovered a variety of suspect accounting methods to overstate their positions including not writing down the value of assets, deferred-tax assets and possibly managing earnings. How widespread do you think this practice is?
very widespread: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/09/gses-and-other-financial-institutions.html I just read the entire article (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/business/07fannie.html) and even though the GSEs have been pretending that they're solvent, they could only pretend that was the case due to accounting fraud and trickery
What the heck is the purpose of the OFHEO? The T dept hired advisers? BUFFETT: Well, it's really an incredible case study in regulation because something called OFHEO was set up in 1992 by Congress, and the sole job of OFHEO was to watch over Fannie and Freddie, someone to watch over them. And they were there to evaluate the soundness and the accounting and all of that. Two companies were all they had to regulate. OFHEO has over 200 employees now. They have a budget now that's $65 million a year, and all they have to do is look at two companies. I mean, you know, I look at more than two companies.