June 02, 2016

It is not Draghi v the banks; it is Draghi and his regulation colleagues v SMEs, entrepreneurs and the real economy.

Sir, two comments on James Shotter’s and Stefan Wagstyl’s “FT Big Read Germany: Draghi v the banks”, June 1.

It refers to Mario Draghi arguing “low borrowing costs were symptomatic of a glut in global savings for which Germany was partly to blame”. Why, in a world where never before has a generation consumed as much of any existing borrowing capacity to sustain its own consumption, should “saving” be something to be “blamed” for?

And then the title: “Draghi v the banks”. It does not sound right! Anyone having agreed to allow banks to leverage their equity over 60 to 1, only because the asset had an AAA to AA rating, can’t possibly be against the banks… he has in fact for many years helped make bankers’ wet dreams come true.

The SMEs and the entrepreneurs, those who because of the risk weighted capital requirements did not gain access to bank credit, and had therefore to forego their dreams for a better future, they are his true enemies, or at least the ones Draghi does not care about. And add to his list of enemies, or equally ignored, all the young who, because of regulatory credit risk aversion, will now not have the possibility to get jobs… ever.

@PerKurowski ©