November 16, 2007

We need to look further than the usual suspects

Sir, I absolutely agree with Martin Wolf when in "Big lessons from Northern Rock" November 16, he answers with an unqualified yes the question "Would it no be better to let mismanaged institutions go under, while protecting small depositors effectively?

Nevertheless, that forces us to define mismanagement and though I agree that management should be the first usual suspects we round up, in this case I would loath to let go, without further investigation, all those bank regulators who by inventing the current structure of the minimum capital requirements for the banks, and appointing the credit rating agencies as their commissars, could ultimately prove to be the real intellectual perpetuators of this mess.