Quick: Synonym for “Other-than-Temporary?”
Want to get rid of something? Change — or obscure — its name.
So, it’s no longer swine flu, it’s an acronym.
In finance, all the toxic loans still on too-big-to-fail bank balance sheets are not “toxic loans” — suddenly, they’re “legacy assets.”
And how are those to be valued?
According to FASB, by applying new, so-called “other-than-temporary impairment” (OTTI) rules.
English actually has a word for “other-than-temporary”: it’s called ‘permanent.’
