February 27, 2017

The populism of bank regulators like Mario Draghi, has hurt Italy much more than Berlusconi’s

Sir, Wolfgang Münchau, discussing a “centrist populist. Take Silvio Berlusconi”, writes that he “left a legacy of economic devastation. Italy’s economic growth is anaemic, its debt burden too high and the banking system too weak…. The euro-zone lacks a joint government and is premised on economic convergence and rules-based governance. Its survival depends on the absence of populism” "Centre-ground populists pose the real threat" February 27.

Again,Münchau says not a word about that during the last decades nothing has been as destructive for the Western world of our grandchildren, than those hubris filled populist technocrats who with their risk weighted capital requirements, offer us to deliver stable and safe banks… at no cost. 

A 0% risk weight for the sovereign, in this case “safe” Italian politicians and bureaucrats, and a 100 % risk weight for “risky” Italian SMEs and entrepreneurs, could never have produced anything but anaemic growth, and the dangerous overpopulation of some supposedly very safe havens.

When will FT and all its famous columnists understand that denouncing the regulatory distortion in the allocation of bank credit is vital to our future?

@PerKurowski