From the pinnacles of power by Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers
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December 16, 2008, 5:17 pm

Power Point: Consider the worst case

“If you’re going to own something, you’d better be prepared to have it be worth nothing.”

- Travelers (TRV) Chairman and CEO Jay Fishman, this afternoon during a visit at Fortune, talking about why his company sidestepped investments in more exotic, less liquid assets. “Discipline matters,” he said, drilling his message about managing conservatively in the downturn — and doing so when the economy is strong as well. Fishman, who previously worked for Sandy Weill at Citigroup (C), believes in mark-to-market accounting, a required practice that has pummeled asset values of many companies. “It imposes a level of discipline on what companies do and what they invest in,” he says.

I believe mark-to-market accounting is what Enron used and let them record profits on the books that were not always realized.

Posted By Zack Sheppard, Mountain View, CA : December 16, 2008 8:27 pm
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Pattie SellersPatricia Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Can Meg Whitman Save California?", Melinda Gates ("The $100 Billion Woman"), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). And she has broken ground with insightful pieces on career management issues such as ego ("Get Over Yourself!"), and "Charisma: Do You Need It? Can You Get It?" Pattie chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. And she has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" cover package since its launch in 1998. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big consumer brand companies.
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