Denoting ultimate responsibility

The choice I made was wrong, but I don't want anyone else to be blamed. I was in charge at the time and the buck stops with me

La scelta che ho fatto è stata un errore, ma non voglio che vengano biasimate altre persone. Allora ero io il capo e me ne assumo ogni responsabilità

This phrase was used and made popular in 1949 by Harry Truman, President of the USA; in fact, he had it written on a sign on his desk in the Oval Office to remind him of his responsibilities. It derives from the slang expression "pass the buck", which means passing the responsibility on to someone else. It is said to have originated with the game of poker, in which a marker or counter, frequently in frontier days a knife with a buckhorn handle, was used to indicate the person whose turn it was to deal. If the player did not wish to deal, he could pass the responsibility by passing the "buck" (i.e. the counter) to the next player.