[belltaco]

>One of the big "lessons" of the 2008 financial crisis was the need to mark assets to market value, because otherwise, the banks were reticent to admit that their worthless assets were, in fact, worthless.

This is not about 'worthless' assets. This is about, say, 10 year US treasury bonds, the safest investments in the world, losing current market value because of interest rates raised by the Federal Reserve.

The intent is two fold, not only saving banks, but also making sure that long term bond's interest rates don't go higher because of lack of demand. That will have repercussions like municipal bonds not getting buyers except maybe at high rates, etc.

>So I find a certain amount of amusement in the government saying 15 years later in effect that mark-to-market is a bad idea and needs to be avoided to prevent financial problems

They didn't say that, they're creating a narrow exception in their books. Mark-to-market will continue to be used everywhere else.