For a good obituary you need a good life

Sir Anil Kashyap in “A sound funeral plan can prolong a bank’s life” June 30 writes about “the rapid resolution plan” that systemically important financial companies, according to the financial regulatory reform proposed by the Obama administration, would have to file indicating what arrangements they have made for their demise. It sounds so right and so utterly responsible (even Angela Dorothea Merkel would be expected to endorse that) but, do we not really need more a little mission statement about what they are going to do while living? I mean we still keep on worrying so much of keeping the costs of the funeral down instead of making certain that the life has been worth it. In the financial regulatory reform, where do they discuss the purpose of the banks?

The possibilities of a “rapid resolution plan” to be of any use depends also much on what disaster hit you. For instance what is the “rapid resolution plan” for a bank if all the credit rating agencies turn out to be wrong (again? Suing the regulators for forcing the banks to heed so much the opinions of these risk surveyors?