Who needs tea leaves to tell us when the credit crisis will end? We've got experts.

After reviewing the prognostications of several top financial minds, this Fool concludes that ... maybe we'd be better off with the tea leaves.

How do things look?
This week, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) posted better-than-expected earnings that ignited some optimism and a sense that we might be moving beyond the crisis. But, Lehman (NYSE: LEH) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) posted dismal quarters that squashed hopeful feelings and suggested that we are still very much in the throes of the crisis.

Second-quarter bank earnings have come and gone. Yet, there is still little clarity about whether we are through the worst of the credit crisis or how long we can expect it to linger. In such uncertain times, perhaps we should look for answers from some of the top financial people.

What do the experts say?
Several prominent financial people have weighed in on the issue recently. Goldman Sachs warned that the crisis may not peak until 2009 and U.S. banks may have to write off another $65 billion. This is positive thinking compared with Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney, who said, "the real harrowing days of the credit crisis are still in front of us." She predicted that banks will write off another $170 billion by the end of next year. Ouch!

And, while Fitch Ratings estimates that the crisis has cost $400 billion in losses so far, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a report that said the crisis could cost as much as $945 billion worldwide before it's over.

Not everyone has such a pessimistic outlook. Some of the more optimistic analysis can be found from prominent bank executives who haven't been fired yet. Richard Fuld, Lehman CEO, proclaimed that the worst of the crisis is "behind us." Going even further, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Diamond says the market turmoil is "maybe 75 percent to 80 percent over."

That sounds great! The problem is that, last summer, bank executives had similar positive-sounding prognostications that proved to be false. One notable example is the former Merrill Lynch CEO who said that he thought the subprime crisis was "reasonably well contained." A cynic might say that such executives tend to be self-servingly optimistic. Continued...