Let me be sure I remember things correctly: Last fall, Washington was worried about the Europeans watering down accounting rules in the face of political pressure, right?
I ask because last week we witnessed the crisis over fair-value accounting rules devolve into some sad mixture of The Godfather and an accounting textbook. The banking industry didn’t like the rules as written; the banking industry complained to Congress; Congress made the Financial Accounting Standards Board an offer it couldn’t refuse: publish new guidance to ease the pain of fair-value accounting, or else.
