Banks take blame for credit crisis

The world's leading banks on Wednesday publicly accepted much of the blame for the credit crisis in an attempt to stave off calls for more regulation, even as the International Monetary Fund slashed its estimates for global growth and warned that the US would suffer a recession.

The Institute of International Finance, representing more than 375 of the world's largest financial companies, acknowledged "major points of weaknesses in business practices", including bankers' pay and the management of risk.

But it said it would be "completely wrong" for the authorities to impose much greater regulation on the industry.

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The IIF report detailed banks' failings in managing risks, conflicts of interest over bankers' pay, over-reliance on models, and inadequate protection against liquidity shortages. It also pointed to failures in credit ratings agencies and the dangers of mark-to-market accounting at times of illiquidity in creating a vicious circle of forced asset sales, lower prices, further writedowns and more asset sales.

Bwahahahaha.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes