Banks' inflated earnings

[slg]

I have been hearing everywhere that banks earnings (except MS) have been inflated, at the same time, I also heard about M2M not taking effect until next quarter. Which is being right/wrong?

[Finance Fanatic]

M2M has been in effect since the FASB meeting over a month ago. Many of the updated earnings had the adjusted write downs in loans. Indeed the numbers are inflated in my opinion, because the billions of the revenues came from either the write downs or TARP funds. Most banks, as a whole, were bankrupt, but now the govt has taken on bankruptcy since they can just adjust their balance sheet.

[slg]

MS shocked everyone with a negative earning - aside from the bond writedowns, is it because they did not follow other banks' path in manipulating their balance sheet as much?

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