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Bankers have been blaming themselves for their troubles in public.
台面上，银行家们将他们的麻烦归咎于己身，
Behind the scenes, they have been taking aim at someone else: the accounting standard-setters.
台面下，他们一直把目标对准他人：会计准则制定者。
Their rules, moan the banks, have forced them to report enormous losses, and it's just not fair.
银行业抱怨会计规则迫使他们报告巨大损失，认为这不公平。
These rules say they must value some assets at the price a third party would pay, not the price managers and regulators would like them to fetch.
规则规定他们必须以第三方付出价格来评估部分资产的价值，而非按照管理者和监管者期望该资产能够获得的价格。
Unfortunately, banks' lobbying now seems to be working.
不幸的是，银行的游说活动看来已显成效。
The details may be unknowable, but the independence of standard-setters, essential to the proper functioning of capital markets, is being compromised.
其中细节可能无法获知，但是准则制定者在独立性方面--这正是资产市场正常运行的关键--已经做出妥协了。
And, unless banks carry toxic assets at prices that attract buyers, reviving the banking system will be difficult.
银行如果不以能够吸引买家的价格计量不良资产，银行系统的复苏将会非常困难。
After a bruising encounter with Congress, America's Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rushed through rule changes.
美国财务会计准则委员会 （FASB）在与国会激烈摩擦之后，匆匆通过了规则修改。
These gave banks more freedom to use models to value illiquid assets and more flexibility in recognizing losses on long-term assets in their income statement.
这些修改使得银行在使用模型评估非流动资产方面用有更大的自由，同时使得它们确认收益表中长期资产损失时更为灵活。
Bob Herz, the FASB's chairman, cried out against those who "question our motives.
FASB 主席 Bob Herz 大声反对那些"怀疑我们的动机"的人们。
" Yet bank shares rose and the changes enhance what one lobby group politely calls "the use of judgment by management. "
然而银行股票上涨了，修改进一步加强了"管理层使用理性判断"的说法。该说法是某游说团的客气之言。
European ministers instantly demanded that the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) do likewise.
欧洲的部长们立刻要求国际会计准则委员会(IASB)也这么做。
The IASB says it does not want to act without overall planning, but the pressure to fold when it completes it reconstruction of rules later this year is strong.
IASB 表示没有完整计划不想就冒然行动。但其在今年下半年完成规则修订时，承受的压力十分巨大。
Charlie McCreevy, a European commissioner, warned the IASB that it did "not live in a political vacuum" but "in the real word" and that Europe could yet develop different rules.
欧洲委员会委员 Charlie McCreevy 警告 IASB 说：它不是"处在政治真空中"而是"在现实世界里"，并表示欧洲最终可能会发展出不同的会计规则。
It was banks that were on the wrong planet, with accounts that vastly overvalued assets.
正是这些银行呆错了星球，它们的账目上充斥着估值过高的资产。
Today they argue that market prices overstate losses, because they largely reflect the temporary illiquidity of markets, not the likely extent of bad debts.
现在他们争论道市价高估了损失，因为市价主要反映了市场的暂时性流动性不足，而非坏账的可能范围。
The truth will not be known for years.
几年中，没人会知道真相。
But bank's shares trade below their book value, suggesting that investors are skeptical.
但是，银行股票以低于账面价值的价格交易，这一点反应了投资者的怀疑。
And dead markets partly reflect the paralysis of banks which will not sell assets for fear of booking losses, yet are reluctant to buy all those supposed bargains.
沉寂的市场一定程度上反应了瘫痪的银行的问题：由于怕账面损失既不愿出售资产，也不愿意去购买那些看似不错的廉价资产。
To get the system working again, losses must be recognized and dealt with.
为了让银行系统重新运转起来，损失必须被确认和处理。
America's new plan to buy up toxic assets will not work unless banks mark assets to levels which buyers find attractive.
只有在银行将资产定价在足够吸引买家的水平上，美国收购不良资产的新计划才会有效。
Successful markets require independent and even combative standard-setters.
成熟的市场需要独立的，甚至是好斗的准则制定者。
The FASB and IASB have been exactly that, cleaning up rules on stock options and pensions, for example, against hostility from special interests.
FASB和 IASB 以往正是这样对抗特殊利益集团的敌意的，例如改进股权和退休金的相关规则。
But by giving in to critics now they are inviting pressure to make more concessions.
但是现在向批评者妥协是自寻压力，他们会进一步做出让步，面临更多的压力。
