This entire notion of Wall Street "marking to model" really stung the likes of the currently employed Dick Fuld and the legion of CEO's at legacy investment banks who have been fired. Now we're moving this trend to Main Street, and we are focused on marking American Net Wealth to market.

The two factors in the model that remain most relevant are A) your portfolios and B) your homes.

If you have more than one of A) and/or B) and its levered, that's probably not good, particularly if either are still "marked to model."

This morning US New Home Sales for the month of May came in lower again month over month at 512,000 versus 525,000 in April. I expect these numbers to decline throughout the summer months and not trough until Americans mark their homes to prices that a realistic market will bear.

KM

(picture: http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/rt_foreclosure_071101_ms.jpg)