From JPMorgan's earnings today, the second one is interesting. Bear with me: 1/

Derivatives have two components: the actual thing you're betting on (things like interest rates and commodity prices in this case) *plus* the risk that the guy on the other side might go bankrupt (credit risk) 2/

For a long time, banks haven't charged that much for the credit piece because interest rates were low and defaults were rare. 3/

Here JPMorgan is saying whoa the risk of the other side defaulting just went up. So they are marking-to-market the credit risk hiding inside those derivatives. Which remember, nobody worried much about for a long time. 4/

The valuation reduced earnings by almost 25%. That's a lot! 

It's actually a sign of discipline. Before 2008, commercial banks were pretty lax about marking things to market (investment banks were slightly better, which is why Goldman came through that crisis in better shape) 5/

Better, more honest marks inside banks means fewer unpleasant surprises down the road. Still, a $1bn swing in counterparty credit risk shows just how bad it is now out there right now.