May 15, 2015

Mario Draghi, for Europe’s and our young's sake, go home. And for your own, stop embarrassing yourself.

Sir I refer to Claire Jones’ “Draghi warns central banks against blind risk taking.” May 15.

Who understands it? “Mario Draghi has warned central banks to beware of the risk that aggressive monetary easing, including mass bond buying, [that which he has been promoting in the ECB] could lead to financial instability and worsen income inequality.

How shameless can you be? As the former Chairman of the Financial Stability Board he is as responsible as anyone else for bank regulations that have completely distorted the allocation of bank credit to the real economy.

He is quoted saying “After almost seven years of a debilitating sequence of crises, firms and households are very hesitant to take on economic risk”. Yes but the truth is that by means of the credit-risk-weighted equity requirements for banks he supports, he and his colleagues are de facto ordering the banks not to finance economic risks.

And he has the toupee of arguing that if ECB had refrained from its QE action, this “would have penalized young people”. No! There is nothing that penalizes young people as much as excessive sissyesque risk-aversion present in current bank regulations. Mr. Draghi, do you really know what is a real terrorist attack on our children’s future? I tell you, again: A risk weight of 0 percent for a sovereign and of 100 percent for SMEs or entrepreneurs.

And Draghi also has the toupee of warning that ECB’s policies could “exacerbate wealth disparities”. Amazing. He must by now be well aware of that current regulations impede bank credit going to where it is most needed, to finance the future and give those who have little opportunities; and directs credit to where it is “safe”, to refinance the past and keep up the value of the assets that exist and already have owners.

Mario Draghi, go home.

@PerKurowski