August 07, 2019

Central banks and regulators are wittingly or unwittingly imposing communism by stealth, at least in Japan.

Sir, you refer to that Bank of Japan’s holdings of government bonds are already at more than 40 per cent of the outstanding stock… and to “massive equity purchases” [by means of buying into the ETF market], and to“the government is the biggest beneficiary of the BoJ’s low interest rate policy” “BoJ risks falling out of sync on global easing” August 7.

Add to that the lower capital requirements for banks when lending to the government than when lending to citizens, and it all adds up to a huge gamble on that government bureaucrats know better what to do with credit/money than private enterprises. It sure sounds too much like communism by stealth for my liking. 

In 1988 the Basel Accord assigned 0% risk weight to sovereigns and 100% to citizens and we all believed that when in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell we had gotten rid of communism for good. How can the world have been so naïve? It will of course end badly.

@PerKurowski