There is enough wiggle room in the accounting rules for banks not to be bound by this price level but the news from Merrill signals the likelihood of more fair-value losses to come.

ECONOMIST: Is Merrill Lynch on the road to recovery?

With no designated framework to release the funds, the process of decision-making will be subjective and will be bound to come under intense public scrutiny, given the level of public anger at the last round of injections into the banking system.

ECONOMIST: Fiddling while Marunouchi burns | The

On a more practical level, they understand that the national debt is bound to result eventually in an increase in the cost of their own borrowing.

FORBES: Private Companies Are Too Smart To Hire