eFinancialCareers

Fortune Magazine suggests further asset write-downs will make bank stocks attractive - an implicit forecast the credit crisis will soon pass and business will return to "normal."

That flies in the face of the conventional view that multi-billion dollar write-downs are entirely negative for banks' current and future business prospects - and thus for industry hiring and compensation. The conventional view was expressed in crystalline form by Meredith Whitney, an equity analyst at CIBC World Markets who's long been bearish on the industry.

"The massive disruption in the debt markets clearly is signaling that things are worse than people wanted to believe,," Whitney told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo in a February interview published in BusinessWeek . She went on to deride institutions who persist in holding on to "aspirational valuations on securities." Doing so hampers banks from making new loans or buying new bonds. "The financial institutions that hold most of these assets are in absolute denial," Whitney said.

The Feb. 25 Fortune story praises managements that cling to performing assets that must be marked down to reflect the market's perception of increased credit risk. "The writedowns generally don't reflect actual cash losses," Fortune says, and the marked-down assets "could lead to increased profits once markets stabilize."

What do you think? If Wall Street has another round of massive write-downs this quarter, will that signify the market is hitting bottom? Or is it part of a vicious cycle, with no end in sight?

Post your thoughts below.