Full disclosure of all liabilities and marking these liabilities to market would do a lot to clear up the markets uncertainties.
Unfortunately, "mark to market" = "what people are willing to pay."
In times of uncertainty like this, the "market value" may be unfairly low (whatever that means); and the greater the pressure to do it, the lower the price is likely to go.
And then, once *anyone* sells at a low price, *everyone* will have their portfolios similarly valued; with the result that everyone will probably face margin calls at the same time, with the result that *everything* goes on a downward spiral at once. This would unwind the excesses all at once. BUT, that can't happen, because so many people are *highly* leveraged, based on the prior assumptios (during the bubble) of monotonically increasing prices, i.e. near zero risk. So even a relatively minor change in the prices downwards will drive many players to bankruptcy at the same time.
Cheers!