December 10, 2012

And what about the plan we need to deal with the too dumb, or too wimpy, or too communist to regulate regulators?

Sir, Brooke Masters and Chris Giles report in “US and UK unveil plan to deal with failed banks” December 10. Of course we need an action plan to deal with failed too big to fail banks, those banks which were fed by the regulators with the growth-hormones of ultra small capital requirements. But, just as important, or even more so, is a plan to deal with the too dumb to regulate regulators? 

As I have argued for years, any regulators who have not understood that what is perceived ex ante as risky does not pose any major dangers for the banks, because where the real threats always lie is in what is perceived as absolutely safe, are just too dumb to regulate… that is unless, with their high capital requirement for banks when lending to the “risky” citizens, and almost non-existent capital requirements for banks when lending to the “infallible” sovereigns, they are not bank regulators at all, but only communist infiltrators, and in which case we need of course to get rid of them even faster. 

We need regulators who understand that there is nothing safe without the risk-taking of the risky. In other words we need regulators who know about the importance of praying “God make us daring!