Hedge fund manager Singer wants limits on leverage

``... he observed that highly regulated banks fueled last year's market implosion because they ramped up their use of leverage, or borrowed money, for trading and investments. High levels of leverage in a downturn can multiply losses and throw markets into chaos. "There is one kind of regulation that will be useful and necessary and that is a global scheme of limitations on leverage," Singer said. Such a scheme, he said would have to ferret out leverage whether it is on the balance sheet or "masked" through various off-the-books entities. "The stark truth is it was not hedge funds that blew up the world, it was regulated entities or their affiliates," he said''