Bloomberg’s billions

Could a tweak to accounting rules blow New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s cover? That’s the scuttlebutt on Wall Street following the rollout of a rule change by the Federal Accounting Standards Board. The modification, dubbed SFAS 157, may force a bank to record a gain if the market value of an asset is greater than its book value. Goldman Sachs did just that on Tuesday, when it record a $500m increase in the value of its private equity portfolio. This has some wondering if Merrill Lynch, which ow...