September 21, 2013

Parade bank regulators down 5th Av, wearing dunce caps, so the next generations of them, know they will be held accountable.

Sir, Mr. William N Kring writes “Banks continuing to sabotage reform”, September 21. Indeed, of course, that’s their business.

But, the number one saboteurs of the much needed reforms are the regulators. By hanging on to their so misguided capital requirements based on ex ante perceived risk, as if their risk perceptions had not previously been seen and cleared for by bankers, they keep creating the regulatory muddiness which allows for the so much muddy lobbying by the banks.

What could banks do if for instance there was just one simple and transparent battle line, like an 8 percent capital requirement on any type of bank assets?

But that would also signify that the whole regulatory establishment would need to confess they were absolutely wrong, from beginning to end, when they with immense hubris thought they could be the risk managers of the world, and started to impose risk-weights, and which only distorted all common sense out of the allocation of bank credit to the real economy.

Damn them, make them parade down 5th Av, wearing dunce caps, so that next generations of bank regulators know they will be held accountable.