June 20, 2008

The real conundrum is… what is the purpose of the banks?

Reading “The conundrum of financial stability” June 20 we get the impression you have been boxed up with those bank regulators for whom everything in life circles around stability, on their watch. You discuss the problem of the central banks having the dual responsibility of macroeconomic and financial stability, but forget that out there, in the real world, stability itself is not enough, we want and we need more.

How the financial systems could help to create decent jobs and avert real threats such as those from arising from climate changes, are issues much more important to discuss than just how banks can avoid to default but, unfortunately, almost by definition, central bankers are not at all interested in those themes, and much less now when having convinced us that they need independence they have been granted their own full stability, given that we cannot fire them.