August 19, 2017

Tim Harford do not compare hurricane Katrina to our 2007/08-bank crisis. The first was nature the second was manmade

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Sir, Tim Harford with respect to the global financial crisis, and referring to the fact that Hurricane Ivan of 2004 should have better prep...

One day, Stanley Fischer, like most current central bankers and regulators, will ask himself, why did I not see that?

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Sir, Sam Fleming writes: “Fischer worries about attacks by lawmakers on global regulatory bodies such as the Financial Stability Board, arg...
August 18, 2017

In crossroads where some cars are allowed to speed through at 62.5, and other at 12.5, which would cause the greatest accidents?

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Robert A Denemark writes: “the financial system provides incentives to engage in risky behaviour that tends toward crisis… It is a good ide...

Odious debts, odious credits and odious regulations are all yin-yang elements of the financial sector

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Sir, M Shepherd, when commenting on Alex Pollock's letter " Sovereign debt has a pretty bad record " August 16 writes that “A...
August 17, 2017

In order to find common Nafta ground, US, Canada and Mexico must begin by clearing for robots and automation

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Shawn Donnan and Jude Webber quote Robert Lighthizer, US trade representative, having told negotiators. “Thousands of American factory work...
August 16, 2017

Britain, don’t let all your hard and well-earned goodwill in Europe go to waste with dumb Brexit negotiations

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Sir, Josef Joffe describes well the kind of goodwill Britain has in Europe. That goodwill is being horribly wasted in the Brexit proceeding...

Its worse! To central banks’ holdings of public debt we must add that of normal banks holding it against zero capital

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Sir, Kate Allen and Keith Fray with respect to the QEs write that “The Fed’s balance sheet has expanded significantly several times in the ...
August 14, 2017

Our dear George Banks, having anteceded the Basel Committee, would never have dreamt about current bank bonuses

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Sir, Jonathan Ford writes: “As Andy Haldane of the Bank of England points out, there are few ways for banks to bolster their returns to sha...

What’s 100% political correct has not even to be close to real feelings on Main Street

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Sir, Gideon Long strangely thinks it is important to quote one obscure member of an unconstitutional assembly that represents perhaps less ...
August 12, 2017

The crisis can of ten years ago was kicked down some roads leading to nowhere

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Sir, in your “ Ten years on, the crisis leaves a dark legacy ” of August 12 you rightly write, “A newly minted mortgage-asset securitisatio...
August 10, 2017

Amazing how an anthropologist, like Gillian Tett, can believe that our financial markets are driven by lust for risks

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Sir, Gillian Tett writes: “if we want to avoid a replay of 2007, we must keep questioning our assumptions — and peering at the parts of the...
August 08, 2017

Could the Venezuelan National Assembly sue Goldman Sachs on behalf of Venezuelans for aiding and abetting a dictator?

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Sir, Mitu Gulati writes: “a judge could find that the holders of Maduro bonds must have known that they were transacting with an unrepresen...
August 07, 2017

Should not regulators know that what is perceived safe has the largest potential of being what’s dangerous for banks?

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Sir, John Authers writes: “In January 2007, credit was priced on the assumption that virtually all US sub-prime mortgages (to people with p...

What the $150bn in US fines paid by banks has caused the real economy, can best be described as financial sadism

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Sir, Kara Scannell writes: “Demands for accountability ushered in an era where the US government was willing to penalise financial institut...

Why is it so hard to understand Basel I’s 1988 statist regulatory distortion of credit in favor of sovereigns?

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Sir, I have written 59 letters to John Plender over the years, mostly about the distortions in the allocation of bank credit to the real ec...
August 06, 2017

ECB’s Mario Draghi’s star quality would evaporate had he to publicly answer some hard questions on bank regulations

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Roger Blitz writes: “Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, will be the star at the annual Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming...
August 05, 2017

More intelligent but less uncontrollable, or dumber and more controllable robots, that is the real tough question

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Sir, you write “some researchers have called for greater “robot transparency” — safeguards to ensure that humans can always grasp what the ...
August 04, 2017

The risk weighted capital requirements give banks great incentives to hide risk from their regulators.

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Sir, Eric Platt and Alistair Gray write “US regulators have joined investors in voicing concern over risky bank lending… particularly when ...
July 30, 2017

On Main Street what’s perceived ultra risky, is de facto much less dangerous than what’s perceived ultra safe.

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Sir, Simon Kuper writes: “The Republican plan to strip health insurance from 22m Americans (including 18m adults), it would kill about 32,7...

The only real game changer for Venezuela would be sharing out all its net oil revenues equally to all Venezuelans

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Sir, I refer to John Dizard’s “ Russian oil group looks to Venezuela’s opposition in search for fresh collateral ” July 29. If Venezuel...

Solving problems by raising taxes and having bureaucrats have a go at these, only risks to complicate matters further

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Sir, Rana Foroohar writes: “College students who manage to graduate do so with the highest average levels of debt in the country, since sta...
July 27, 2017

Current bank regulations also guarantee Canadian covered bonds will have more demand than Italian.

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Sir, Thomas Hale while explaining the appetite for Canadian covered bonds quotes Michael Spies, a strategist at Citi with: “I’m buying a co...

Are those who impose regulations that create generous incentives for these to be gamed entirely without blame?

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Sir, Brooke Master while discussing regulations for carmakers and banks refers to “mis-sold mortgage-backed securities and payment protecti...

Sadly Bolivar did not free Venezuela from its natural resource curse

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Sir, Gideon Long writes about the immense significance Simon Bolívar has for all Venezuelans. “ Bitter enemies invoke spirit of Bolívar as v...
July 23, 2017

Like social bonds’ growth the antisocial bonds’ seem also to be doing fine

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Sir, Kate Allen writes: “a host of other financial products have begun to emerge, promising to tackle social issues including homelessness,...
July 22, 2017

FT, you have a fake understanding on what is wrong with current bank regulations, and you have silenced my real one

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Sir, Gillian Tett, your US Managing Editor, referring to the responses to an article by her titled “ Why a divided America has united again...
July 20, 2017

Where would China be if western world had not placed a reverse mortgage on their economies, in order to keep on buying?

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Sir, with interest I have read Martin Wolf’s “ How the developed world lost its edge ” July 20. In my opinion Wolf ignores two major events...
July 19, 2017

World Bank has thrown a very timely and important spanner into the works on how to combat climate change

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Sir, Henry Sanderson reports on a report of World Bank that states: “Technologies needed to meet the Paris climate agreement from wind, sol...

Not just China needs to allocate capital to the more productive, dynamic and employment-generating parts of the economy

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Sir, Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes: “Fixing the financial system i...

Those profiteering on the employed, moneywise or politically, make us ignore, to our peril, the unemployed.

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Sir, Kiran Stacey and Anna Nicolaou report on “Emerging nations in South Asia and beyond are pinning their development hopes on creating mi...
July 16, 2017

Had our current bank regulators been instructed by robots, we might not be in this mess

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Sir I refer to Jeevan Vasagar’s “ My first robot ” July 13. Why do I argue the possibility indicated in the title? Because perhaps robo...

Brexit should be an affair between Europeans, not between some EU technocrats resenting a love spat.

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Sir, I refer to Robert Shrimsley’s ironizing “ Your country needs you: Brexit’s patriot act ” July 15. There he writes: “Fox has said some ...
July 15, 2017

High house prices, besides a function of low interest rates, is a function of senseless bank regulatory favoritism

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Sir, You write: “With or without a price crash, [resulting from interest rates rising] thinking about real estate must change… A house is n...