Tea with FT

As a former Executive Director of the World Bank I know that the columnists of the Financial Times have more voice than what I ever had, and therefore they might need some checks-and-balances.

Currently, having probably trampled on some delicate ego, I am a persona non grata at FT.

Would the child shouting out “the Emperor is naked” have his observation published in FT? Does the child need a PhD for that?

For more see "A Blog is Born" at the very bottom.

January 31, 2015

The bank regulators in the Basel Committee are also in urgent need of some statistical education.

Sir, Tim Harford writes: “the cure for “bad statistics” isn’t “no statistics” – it’s using statistical tools properly” and makes a good cas...

January 30, 2015

The Basel Committee’s credit-risk-avoiding-banks-driven-growth is a populist, fraudulent and dangerous prospectus

Sir, Philip Stephen writes “Greece should not be given a free pass, but the lesson of the post-crisis years has been that governments can g...

January 29, 2015

FT, what about the moral responsibility of journalists of telling it like it is with Greece’s debt?

Sir, your FT reporters write: “Germany and France warned Greece not to expect taxpayers in other countries to pick up the tab for its polic...

Europe is caught in a bank regulation trap set up by the Basel Committee and the Financial Stability Board

Sir, I refer to Ralph Atkins’ and Michael Mackenzie’s “ Caught in a debt trap ” January 29. They write “Crisis-fighting actions by cent...

January 28, 2015

With central banks ok with banks leveraging 60 times plus with loans to Greece, the sky seems the limit for gold prices

Sir, Jamie Chisholm in “ Trading Post ” January 28 writes: “There has been much talk recently about how investors are growing fearful that ...

What would make a Negro slave on a cotton plantation in 1800 America, not feel being discriminated against?

Sir, I refer to Luke Johnson’s valedictory essay for the FT “ A farewell after eight years championing founders ” January 28. The follo...

There will probably be a tragicomedy musical named “Mario” in our grandchildrens' future

Sir, John Kay does the debate on the economy a great favor by helping to place “deflation” in a wid...

What about the moral responsibility of telling the whole truth about Greece’s debts?

Sir, Martin Wolf writes: ”Done correctly, debt reduction would benefit Greece and the rest of the Eurozone... Unfortunately, reaching such ...

January 27, 2015

Restructure all Greece’s debt, in terms Germany would offer if it wanted to restructure its own public debt

Sir, I refer to Reza Moghadam’s “ Halve the debt and keep the eurozone together ” January 27. I am convinced that much of the excessive...

The World Bank’s bias against banks taking risks hurts the poor they want to help.

Sir, I refer to Michael Holman’s “ The World Bank fails to credit the intelligence of the world’s poor ” January 27. It discusses the r...

“Stay indoors where it is safe children, outside is much too risky” Nanny Basel Committee

Sir, Professor Jeff Frank refers to “driving with one foot on the throttle and the other on the brake” when explaining how QE “hasn’t done ...

January 26, 2015

“The Risky” Greeks and Germans, should ally to request from both of their governments, a vital structural reform.

Sir Tony Barber and Kerin Hope write that “Greek banks rely on the European Central Bank for favourable funding arrangements, which the ECB...

Europe, without cleaning up your bank regulations, all what ECB, Brussels and governments do, is useless and dangerous.

Sir, we have bank regulators allowing banks to hold much less equity when lending to a sovereign, than when lending to a small businesses o...

January 23, 2015

Sadly small businesses, entrepreneurs, and unemployed, have little reason to celebrate ECB’s/Draghi’s QEs.

Sir, Martin Wolf divides the opposition to ECB’s/Draghi’s QEs into those who think this “takes the pressure off governments to deploy expan...

January 22, 2015

Sir, is it not high time FT abandons its “Après nous le deluge" mode?

Sir, of the letters I wrote and which you published, before I was censored for the given reason that I wrote too many letters, that which g...

January 21, 2015

Martin Wolf: How risky to the banking system can a borrower perceived as risky really be?

Sir, I refer to Martin Wolf’s “ Chronic economic and political ills defy easy cure ” January 21. Of course! It is impossible to cure cu...

An excessive risk aversion, an “Après nous le deluge”, is the bequest of what kind of generation?

Sir, I refer to John Kay’s “ Inequality is the bequest of an unequal generation ” January 21. To it, I would like to add the following: ...

We citizens need an international tribunal where we can have our odious sovereign debts recognized as odious credits.

Sir I refer to Ricardo Hausmann’s “ Venezuela’s economic collapse owes a debt to China ” January 21. It reflects much of what I have been w...

Governments, stop holding the regulatory gun against equity strapped banks, and give the real economy a chance

Sir, Martin Wolf holds that “the Eurozone may fail, not because of irresponsible profligacy but rather because of pathological frugality”, ...

Basel Committee, Financial Stability Board, you are dangerously devoid of any common sense

Sir, I refer to Lucy Kellaway’s courageous and important “ How insecurity and preening kill corporate common sense ” January 19. Kellaw...

Today’s “risk-free-rates”, are not real risk free rates but subsidized risk free rates!

Sir, I refer to Amin Rajan’s “ Portfolio theory has hypnotised asset managers ” January 19. Rajan, referring to Pascal Blanqué’s book “...

January 19, 2015

ECB’s Draghi’s “whatever it takes”, should be the subscription of hundred’s of billions in new European bank equity.

Sir, I refer to Wolfgang Münchau’s “ Why the ECB should not water down a QE program ” January 19. But why would you pour QE on the Euro...

January 17, 2015

Basel Committee, Financial Stability Board: Hear hear… Tim Harford’s "The Power of saying ‘NO’"

Sir, hear hear… Tim Harford’s, “ The Power of saying ‘no’ ”, January 17. “Please, please, dear bank regulator, allow us lower equity re...

For Basel IV should we not expect equity requirements for banks based on regulation and central banks risks?

Sir, I refer to John Authers’ “ Lessons to be leant from Switzerland doffing its cap ” January 17. Whatever, this really places the fa...

American Founding Fathers never suspected bank regulatory power to be delegated or outsourced to a Committee in Basel.

Sir, I refer to Gary Silverman’s “ Wasting Dimon’s time is the way we do things ” January 17. With respect to the complaints of Dimon a...

Bank regulators and central bankers owe Greece and Germany some explanations and apologies.

Sir, I refer to Gillian Tett recounting what happened in a meeting of central bankers last year in Switzerland, “ Why Europe owes a debt to...

January 16, 2015

When will we stop investing with so much power not so much caring whimsy central bank bureaucrats, to try to bet against the markets... with our money?

Sir, back in the eighties, in Venezuela, some friends and I purchased one year of the harvest of many mango trees. When time came, with muc...

The regulators, who foolishly gave in to bank-children’s equity pleas, must as responsible parents now help them out.

Sir, Tom Braithwaite and Martin Arnold write: “Together with regulatory and investor pressure for higher returns, universal banks have lost...

January 15, 2015

JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, welcome to the club! Small businesses and entrepreneurs have been attacked for years!

Sir Tom Braithwaite reports that, because of proliferation of regulators and legal bills, “ Dimon says banks ‘under assault’ ” January 15 ...

Why is Europe so little appreciative of our more than $300bn non-reimbursable oil price easing?

Sir, I completely agree with Sarah Gordon in that “Worries over deflation have been puffed up by prophets of doom” January 15. For inst...

European Court of Justice. Beware, ECB's Mario Draghi does not know what he is doing, and if he does, then so much worse!

Sir Ralph Atkins writes “Trust them, they are central bankers… That, in essence, will be the European Court of Justice’s thinking on govern...

When does a subsidy become an outright gift? Hugo Chavez committed an odious economic-policy crime against humanity.

Sir I refer to Andres Schipani’s and John Paul Rathbone’s “ Oil’s slide forces Venezuela to rethink subsidies agreed in Chávez glory days ”...

Draghi does not deserve independence. The shackles that most need to come off are those of the European economy.

Sir, you write: “the European economy is still dependent on large troubled banks that have little ability or inclination to boost economic ...

January 14, 2015

"True believers"? No Martin Wolf! Truly brainwashed sickos, is a far as I would go.

Sir, I understand and share many of the concerns that Martin Wolf expresses in “ How to share the world with true believers ” January 14. T...

Why are not shares, properties in London, or famous paintings, not included as part of nominal demand?

Sir you hold that “deflation is bad if accompanied by falling nominal demand, and benign otherwise”, “ Central bankers steered towards the ...

Stop bank regulators from pre-acting on ex ante perceived credit risks, and make them think more of all ex post dangers.

Sir, John Kay refers to a chapter in an upcoming book of his titled “The bias to action”; and to that “the bias to immediacy and action is ...

Europe, urgently, fire Basel Committee’s members; and ask ECB to inject €1tn as equity in Europe’s banks

Sir, Simon Samuel’s mentions as a consequence of Basel III the possibility of a collapse in bank lending in Europe that would dwarf the €1t...

January 13, 2015

If I could decide, this is what I would tell ECB to do with all Europe’s banks… I think

Sir, Tom Braithwaite writes: “Banks have been forced to become safer and more boring. By closing down the casino, regulators have reduced t...

January 12, 2015

Europe, get rid of risk-weights, impose a 10% leverage ratio, and have ECB's helicopter drop equity on your banks

Sir, Wolfgang Münchau, as a tool to avert deflation in Europe, mentions the possibilities of a sizable QE helicopter drop in Europe, like €...

January 11, 2015

Some depressions cannot self-correct if what caused them correct. “Deflation” is surrounded by too much mumbo jumbo.

Sir, I refer to John Authers’ “ The self-correcting depression and the virtue of deflation ”, January 10. Do I believe in that? You can...

January 10, 2015

The most dangerous deflation is that which has happened, big time, in the accountability of bank regulators.

Sir, you write: “The Eurozone cannot go on as it is. Growth is weak to non-existent” and you conclude in that “ Deflation risk in Europe le...

January 09, 2015

“Regression to the mean”, if allowed by politicians and regulators, will take care of the plutocrats, in due time.

Sir, Paul Marshall in “ Blame the rise of the plutocrats on politics not capitalism ”, January 9, holds that we need Schumpeter much more t...

January 08, 2015

Systemic distortion of bank credit allocation, is worse than risks with “global systemically important banks”

In November 1999 I concluded and Op-Ed with: “Currently market forces favors the larger the entity is, be it banks, law firms, auditing fi...

January 07, 2015

The world is being driven towards deflation by a dangerous risk-aversion imposed by the regulators on banks

Sir, John Plender writes “The Eurozone is being driven towards deflation by a moralistic drive for austerity that does nothing to arrest ri...

We are in the midst of a slow-motion deep financial crisis that no one dares to speak of.

Sir, Martin Wolf gives a generally positive outlook for 2015 in “ An economist’s advice to astrologers ” January 7. That is because he ...

Bank regulators facilitated, even empowered, financiers to turn their back on the forces of equality.

Sir, John Kay writes about how the share of finance professionals in the growing top 1 percent share of all income has grown dramatically, ...

January 06, 2015

What is this nonsense of a free market consensus when all banks are intervened by regulators?

Sir, Gideon Rachman refers to a weakening in the belief in free markets, “shaken by the financial crisis in 2008 and the subsequent Great R...

January 05, 2015

India, to end ‘lazy banking’, you must first get rid of Basel’s bank regulations which orders banks to be ‘lazy’.

Sir, I refer to James Crabtree’s report “ Modi promises to end India’s ‘lazy banking’ ” January 5. It states that Narendra Modi, India’...

The Basel Committee for Banking Supervision needs artificial intelligence, the human one does seemingly not suffice.

Sir it was with much interest, and hope, that I read Richard Waters’ report “ Investor rush to artificial intelligence is the real deal ” J...

January 03, 2015

Beware of excessive information. (Blissful) ignorance is a potent driver of financial markets and of human activities.

Sir, Tracy Alloway describes the possibility of adding on, as you go along, new pieces of information that will enhance the knowledge of t...

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