Mr. Sachs let us though avoid stabilizing underdevelopment.

Sir The introduction by the Basel Committee of the minimum capital requirements for banks and which is based on some vaguely defined risk of default only reflects, at its best, the perspectives of a developed country that has a natural desire to keep all that it has gained under the belt; and has nothing to do with the risk-taking a developing country needs in order to place at least something under its belt.

Add to the previous the empowerment of the credit rating agencies as the official guides in the world of risks, and which directed trillions of dollars in capital to the supposedly risk free land of subprime financing instead to some perhaps less risky opportunities in developing countries and we can only conclude that the title of Jeffrey D Sachs’ article, November 27, should have been “The financing of the aid to the developing countries”.

“A new system of development finance” needs to start instead with analyzing issues such as the role of risk taking in development, since risk is indeed the oxygen of development. In this respect we feel tempted to remind Mr Sachs and other that when helping, they please try to avoid stabilizing our underdevelopment and that they instead help to get rid of those Basel regulatory elements that make the living in high-risk-country even harder than it already is.