Got it? 

The way this game works is that you find a significantly-large nation that is willing to allow all sort of accounting games and extreme leverage (cough-Germany-cough!) and then you whine and bitch because you can't get the same rules over here.

Heh, it worked for Paulson, right?  Remember that investment banks were limited to 14:1 leverage - until 2004 when Paulson went to the SEC and got them to lift the cap.

What was Lehman and Bear's leverage when they blew up?

Oh, and what is the actual leverage at Deutche Bank?  Does anyone know?  What are they holding on their balance sheet (and off), and does anyone know what their actual risk on those alleged "assets" are?

Nope.

The ECB-space banks are in many ways worse than ours in terms of disclosure.