The fallout from the financial crisis of 2008 included an
overheated real estate market, fueled by home purchase incentives,
poor lending practices, and securitization through high-risk,
mortgage-backed securities, which led to a near collapse of global
capital markets. As a consequence, many have argued that if the
financial institutions had been required to report their loans (and
loan-backed investments) at fair value instead of cost, large
losses would have been reported earlier. This would have signaled
regulators to the problems...