more morans

From today's Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/03/AR2009020303782.html?hpid=topnews


"The basic problem confronting the government is that banks hold large quantities of assets that they value on their books for much more than investors are willing to pay. Banks cannot sell these assets without recording massive losses. "


Um, doesn't that mean that these large quantities of assets aren't actually, uh, ASSETS?