March 07, 2016

Wolfgang Münchau has not earned the right to now appear as the one demanding “banks to take on more risk”

Sir, Wolfgang Münchau writes “One useful measure that would bring immediate benefits would be purchases of non-performing loans in the banking sector…. The objective should be not to protect bank profits but to get banks to take on more risk” “Eurozone woes demand a much bolder response” March 7.

And he also writes that he favors helicopter droppings over QEs because that “policy would bypass governments and the financial sector. The financial markets would hate it. There is nothing in it for them. But who cares?”

Is he wrong? Of course not! But who is he to now demand that kind of bold action?

Over the years Münchau has kept mum on all letters I sent reminding him of the dangers of credit risk aversion caused by the risk weighted capital requirements for banks, like one in 2007. And equally mum on the letters were I informed him that, because of such risk weighing, the liquidity provided by QEs did not reach where it was most needed by the real economy, like one in 2012

Here is but one example of my many letters to Wolfgang Münchau and that by the way suggests the capitalization he now speaks of.

Sir, you can find many many more letters to Münchau here:

And even though ideas can be dressed up in different words Münchau should be careful. “Never plagiarize. Always attribute” is a simple, clear statement in the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics that leaves no room for ambiguity.

@PerKurowski ©