March 03, 2008

A crash capital replenishment is bad for the banks

Sir let us suppose you have gone to your doctor for regular checkups and because his balance had broken down you never discovered something was very wrong and as a result you had become seriously obese. What would you say if the doctor when discovering his mistake sends you on a crash diet, even though that could be life threatening?

This is exactly what is happening in the financial sector when the banks, after it was discovered that the credit rating agencies that were imposed on the banks by the regulators got it all wrong, and they are now ordered to replenish their capital… immediately… while the conditions are as adverse they can be. Who on earth could benefit from this? Only those who shorted the banks.

A rational doctor would work out a medium or long term plan for a diet and a rational bank regulator would give the banks ample time to come up with new capital.

And by the way, for the record, I do not own a single bank share.

PS. We normally know if a weight is lying to us…but how we love it for that!