July 04, 2015

Less trust in the Greek government has a great silver lining we can only hope lasts long enough.

Sir, Peter Spiegel writes: “Trust is so broken several eurozone officials say even if Greeks defy Mr Tsipras and vote Yes tomorrow, they may be unwilling to deal with his government to negotiate a new bailout.” “Trust evaporates after bewildering week” July 4.

Between June 2004 and November 2009, with Basel II, the regulators in the Basel Committee allowed banks to lend to the Government of Greece against only 1.6 percent in capital, which implies an authorized leverage of over 60 to 1 when lending to Greece… and if that is not an outrageously excessive trust what is?

And since banks were required to hold more capital when lending to the Greek private sector that also implied regulators believed Greek government bureaucrats could use bank credit more efficiently than the private sector… and if that is not complete lunacy what is?

The excessive trusting of Greek governments caused the current tragedy… and so less trust in its government cannot really be too bad. Let us hope that distrust lasts long enough for the Greek citizens to have a chance to rebuild their own country.

That said, the citizens of all other countries must also beware when Basel Committee brings gifts to their own government bureaucrats.