October 10, 2016

It is way overdue FT stops thinking of Brexit solely as a disastrous defeat, and starts exploring its opportunities

Sir, I refer to Wolfgang Münchau’s “The shock that will shift a nation’s business model” October 10.

Indeed it is long way overdue that at least some of you in FT stop the crying and begin thinking about Brexit not as an unqualified defeat/disaster, but as an opportunity.

But let me be clear. When Münchau mentions the need for “a shift in the direction of the UK economy away from transactional capitalism towards a more inclusive version of a free-market economy”, that begins precisely by throwing out the Basel Committee’s risk weighted capital requirements for banks.

That single piece of regulation, which turned banks away from maximizing returns on equity by means of banking, into doing so by means of capital (equity) minimization; and all based on avoiding ex ante perceived, decreed or concocted risks, has been about as damaging to the real economy as anything I can think of.

But Sir, to recognize that after ignoring the literally thousands of letter I have sent you on that subject, would of course require FT to eat loads of humble pie. Are you without fear and without favour enough to do that?

@PerKurowski ©