If you think last week was a big one for the banking sector, this week could blow your mind. The catalyst will come at 10:00 a.m. this Thursday when a House subcommittee meets to discuss the near-term fate of mark-to-market accounting rules.

If the recent surge in calls for temporarily relaxing the market-regulating rules gains traction, we could easily see triple-digit share price gains at some of the nation’s most prominent banks. After all, without mark-to-market accounting, many banks could re-write their balance sheets. Assets that were once written down to nearly zero could be given just about any valuation.

Unfortunately, that is where the trouble and the opportunity lie.

With current accounting standards, banks must account for their assets, like bundles of mortgages and risky loans, at today’s prices. But nobody really knows what today’s prices are. After all, nobody is buying anything. That means banks have been forced to write down many of their least-liquid assets to nearly zero, the only price they know they could get.

But if the accounting rules are suspended, oh boy, banks could value those same assets at just about any price. Because there is no liquid market, finding a true fair price is nearly impossible. If a bank says its mortgages are worth six trillion dollars that is the price its balance sheet will portray. It will not matter if those same assets are listed as just a million dollars of value today.

Investors want to suspend mark-to-market accounting because it will lift valuations by huge proportions. As soon as the regulation is lifted, corporate accountants can start adding multiple zeros to all sorts of assets. And of course, those zeros would find their way to share prices.

With just one change in regulations, investors would go flooding back into the financial sector and send the equities market surging. It would make Washington look like the savior it has promised to be.

The end of economic trouble?

Of course, the gains would only be temporary. Before too long, the newly created bubble would burst and things would start crashing down once again. Even worse, investors would have no way to tell how accurate the new figures are. Without mark-to-market rules, there is nothing stopping a company from flat-out lying about its valuations. Enron’s books would look like a little, white lie.

Remember, mark-to-market is merely an accounting rule. It simply tells us how to price things on corporate balance sheets. It does absolutely nothing to represent cash flows

Read the full article here: Mark-to-market changes: Don’t count on a solution