Never expect banks to stick to rules once they start losing money. When banks run into trouble, there is a simple solution: just change the rules.

No surprises then that the Financial Times reports that the the world's biggest banks want to change the accounting rules to help them stay afloat. The banks, according to the FT, want to start valuing illiquid assets using historical, rather than market, prices. "Senior bankers have long sought a change to the accounting rules, arguing that the requirement to mark the value of assets to the market price even when markets are illiquid or frozen creates a vicious circle of excessive losses, capital depletion and forced asset sales," reports the FT.

This bare-faced hypocrisy is hard to take. Let's not forget that when the market was booming and prices were rising, the banks used "fair value'' accounting to make massive profits and earn themselves enormous bonuses. It allowed them borrow more and increase debt substantially.

Now that the market is tanking, all this "fair value'' accounting is making it worse. As a result, all the banks want now is to change the rules.