As a former Executive Director of the World Bank I know that the columnists of the Financial Times have more voice than what I ever had, and therefore they might need some checks-and-balances. For more see "A Blog is Born" at the very bottom.
Would a child shouting out “the Emperor is naked” have his observation published in FT? Would he now need a PhD for that to happen?
Sir, what Mr. Keith Phair tells you in his letter “Caveat Emptor should be everybody´s maxim”, September 8, refers precisely to something I have been telling you for about a decade, and which you basically, for reasons I cannot understand, decided to ignore.
Some very few regulators thinking they were capable of managing the bank risks of the world, caused and are still causing immense sufferings, and you Sir are refusing to help holding them accountable for that.
Bank regulators, dare to debate with me the silliness or the wisdom of your regulations... come on don't be shy
On October 1 2009, the Economist Forum gave me some FT voice again publishing "Free us from imprudent risk-aversion"
And I very much appreciate it.
And on July 12 2012 Wolf also wrote that when "setting bank equity requirements, it is essential to recognise that so-called “risk-weighted” assets can and will be gamed by both banks and regulators. As Per Kurowski, a former executive director of the World Bank, reminds me regularly, crises occur when what was thought to be low risk turns out to be very high risk."
And that is something that I of course also appreciate, but that yet makes me curious on why Wolf does not follow up on it.
English is not my mother language so bear with me and you’ll probably note when my letter has been published in FT by its correctness. Swedish is my mother language but I have not written anything serious in it for about 40 years and last time I tried, they just laughed their hearts out because of my démodés. Polish is my father language but, unfortunately, I do not speak a word of Polish, much less write it. Yes Spanish is my language, as I am from Venezuela and although I trust I write in it with great flair, I would still never dream of publishing an article in Spanish without having it edited by my wife.
And so friends here is my Tea with FT blog with my old and new letters to the editor. I hope you will share them with me now and again, and then again and again.
Welcome, and cheers, as I believe they say over there.
Per
PS. Just so that FT does not get too cocky and believe it is my only window to the world, I will now and again publish a letter sent to the editor of another publication.
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