From Hot Air:

George Bush made a statement today about the failure of the House to pass the agreement that leaders of both parties hammered out over the weekend.  He acknowledged the difficulty of the vote, but underscored the difficulty of the situation and the need to address it quickly.  The drop in the stock market yesterday represented a less of $1 trillion dollars, and the cost to taxpayers would be much less — and perhaps nothing at all, if the assets can recover their value over time.

The consequences of delay will make this problem worse, and Bush said he will press Congress for action when they return.  “Our economy is depending on decisive action by the government,” Bush warned, and continued inaction will send a very bad message to global markets.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich and others have been doing the rounds on TV News pushing an immediate repeal of Mark-to-Market, which they argue is a big contributor to the crisis. According to Gingrich:

Moreover, when a company in financial distress begins fire sales of its assets to raise capital to meet regulatory requirements, the market-bottom prices it sells out for become the new standard for the valuation of all similar securities held by other companies under mark-to-market. This has begun a downward death spiral for financial companies large and small.

“Mark-to-Market” Accounting and the Origins of the Financial Crisis: Mark-to-market accounting (also known as “fair value” accounting) means that companies must value the assets on their balance sheets based on the latest market indicators of the price that those assets could be sold for immediately. Under such a rule, declining housing prices don’t just reduce the value of defaulting mortgages. They reduce the value of all mortgages and all mortgage-related securities because the housing collateral protecting them is worth less.

More foreclosures and home auctions continue to depress housing prices, further reducing the value of all mortgage-related securities. As capital values decline, firms must scramble to maintain the capital required by regulation. When they try to sell assets to raise that capital, the market values of those assets are driven down further. Under mark-to-market, the company must then mark down the value of all of its assets even more.