In the current crisis, where there is no real market, the rule has forced massive write-downs, which have precipitated solvency and counter-party credit concerns that have caused further write-downs.

FORBES: Subprime Debacle Lessons

"With its high leverage ratio to tangible common equity, we believe Lehman needs to raise substantial capital regardless of market conditions in order to take its needed write-downs, " Einhorn said in an email Tuesday.

FORBES: Lehman Doesn't Need The Money

The frozen market for mortgage-backed securities was triggering massive write-downs, i.e. destroying capital, even while the underlying mortgages were still performing.

FORBES: FASB's Return to Mark-to-Market Sanity

Some say a solution is to suspend the mark-to-market accounting rules that have caused the cascade of write-downs in the first place.

FORBES: Credit Crisis

Rather than attracting bargain-hunting buyers, the repeated asset write-downs chased buyers out of the market and encouraged more selling, creating a black hole of liquidity.

FORBES: Credit Crisis

They don't like mark-to-market accounting, which has forced billions of dollars in write-downs.

FORBES

The loss was mainly due to asset write-downs which Peugeot took to reflect the worsening state of Europe's car market.

BBC: Peugeot Citroen reports record annual loss