Many of the public banks are havin a real tough time figuring out what exactly their ‘book’ is.  That’s why whenever you hear anyone talking about the price-to-book value of these companies chuckle to yourself, because what they are taking about means next to nothing in this environment. Now institutional investors are starting to cry foul as what seemed to be more conservative investments in banks turned out to be mired down in subprime mortgage problems.  HSH Nordsbank, one of Germany’s largest financial institutions, is filing in US court against UBS.  The $500m HSH invested was supposed to be in instruments that provided, safe, secure returns.  HSH claims UBS broke the terms of this covenant by investing in subprime assets with its cash.  Oops sorry!