Based on fair-value accounting rules, Goldman forced lower fire-sale marks on the industry which put some financial institutions out of business almost overnight.

FORBES: It's Getting Harder To Defend Goldman Sachs

Other government policies that have distorted financial markets, thereby undermining the EMH, include shielding credit-rating agencies from lawsuits, government-sanctioned fair-value accounting rules, enforcing credit-default swaps where there is no insurable interest, mispriced deposit insurance, government-sponsored enterprises, and the over-promotion of home ownership.

ECONOMIST: Economic reasoning

The most immediate is the mark-to-market, or so-called fair-value accounting, rules that regulators have been enforcing since the early 1990s.

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