Tranched instruments have no clear market price, so they have to be valued with complex models.

ECONOMIST: Credit derivatives

While foreign investors consider it onerous, many still invest in the U.S. because of its clear legal system and a transparent property market, where price and performance data is easy to obtain.

WSJ: Tax Plan May Provide Real-Estate Boost

If demand is insufficient to clear the market for any good or service, then the price of the good or service will fall until demand equals supply.

FORBES: The Fiscal Cliff and America's Coming Recession

Today the real estate research provider released its monthly Clear Capital Home Data Index (HDI) market report, recapping the price fluctuations of 2010 and asserting market valuation forecasts for 2011.

FORBES: Cities Where Home Values Will Rise And Fall The Most In 2011

There's no telling what price the shares would command on the open market today, but this much is clear: Wall Street is cool to new issues these days.

FORBES: Family feud

And with a 42.3% rise in the number of private buyers piling into the car market, it became clear that consumers had been taken in by the UK industry's savage price cuts during 2000.

BBC: Rover 75