I normally would have an opinion on an issue like this. Be it right or wrong... But this time... I have no idea at all what this means or how serious is this. Plus WSJ wants you to register. Why not someone break copyright law and just copy and paste. Or at least an executive summary.
My question is this. Will this cause corporations to take charges due to losses on their cash holdings? I think I have already seen this from some firms but don't recall thier names. This could become a big problem IMO.
The securities, initially limited to institutional investors, became more widely available to individual investors in recent years as issuers and auction-rate sellers lowered the required minimum investment from about $250,000 to $25,000, according to the lawsuits. This kills me. Always happens. "Hey, let's fuck everyone. We can't keep this just Institutional." One more time I want to see that UBS commercial where that bozo that never swung a golf club in his life hits off pine needles to an island green.
My company (which has nothing to do with financial markets per se) had 2 "credit events" where they lost money due to the credit markets not being able to mark to market, or our earnings would have been even better!