February 28, 2015

‪#Oxfordlitfest‪ ‬An opportunity to see if Martin Wolf has overcome his intuitions with respect to bank regulations

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"More-perceived-risk-more-bank-equity and less-risk-less-equity", sounds so utterly logical, that perhaps intuition kills underst...

We’ve fallen into the dangerous and spooky hands of an inept bunch of amateurish masters of the universe.

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Sir, I refer to Andrew Sentance’s “ We expect too much of the new masters of the universe [central bankers]” February 28. Sentence ask...

No Tim Harford. On a train it is the passenger who takes the decision which class he travels.

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Sir, Tim Harford might have seriously confounded us explaining some downside of net neutrality for us with his splendid train allegory in “...
February 27, 2015

Negative yields give crystal clear evidence of QEs not working, as a result of dumb bank regulations

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Sir, I refer to Elaine Moore’s “ QE hopes draw investors to negative yields ” February 27. Is that not proof enough of what is wrong? I...
February 25, 2015

Nowadays, in banking, more important than the “Know your client” is the “Know your equity requirements”

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Sir, it used to be that, beside general cost control, negotiating with the client was all a bank did to look for an acceptable return on it...

There are credits for building the future and credits for consuming the past. And these must live in harmony.

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Sir, Martin Wolf writes “The world desperately needs new ways to manage its economy, ones that support demand without creating unmanageable...
February 24, 2015

That banks do not lend to small businesses in Europe has a reason and is not something irreversible

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Michael Sherwood and Richard Gnodde write “The international regulatory response to the financial crisis, which is intended to make sure th...

More than about the euro, Europeans needs to worry about their own future.

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Sir, on the eve of the euro I published an OpEd in which I expressed doubts about its long term viability quite similar to those expressed ...
February 23, 2015

Andrew Bailey, and what about the highly irresponsible conduct of bank regulators?

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Sir, I refer to Andrew Bailey’s “ Irresponsible conduct carries consequence in British finance ” Fe...

It is always dangerous when intuition overtakes understanding - The Kurowski Matrix

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Sir, I refer to Lucy Kellaway’s “ No need to ‘lean in’ when laziness can be just as effective ”, February 23. It mentions a clever vs. ...
February 21, 2015

Our risk with banks has nothing to do with risks of their assets, and all with how banks manage risks of their assets

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Sir, Tim Harford writes: “It’s particularly easy to fool ourselves when we already think we have the answer”, “ Take a guess at JFK’s age i...
February 20, 2015

FT, here is an “innocent” question to Obama and his White House advisors.

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Sir, Sam Fleming reports: “During the past 65 years, middle-class incomes have gone from doubling once a generation to showing almost no gr...

The real oil revenue fixer is not Opec, much less American shale oil, but the European taxman.

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Sir, I can’t believe you use extremely valuable influential space such as your “Comment” space to allow Alan Greenspan to opine such nonsen...

Few things hamper growth as much as sissy bank regulations.

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Sir, Gillian Tett writes that according to BoE’s Andy Haldane, there has been “a shift in cultural attitudes towards the future” with “our ...

Bank regulators have placed a reverse mortgage on our economies that extracts all present value and builds no future.

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Sir, Martin Wolf writes about the growth of fiscal spending in health and other “predominantly age-related areas” and about “a conflict bet...
February 19, 2015

FT, the letter on Greece, signed by many important persons, won’t cut it for Greece…or for Europe.

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Sir I refer to the letter about Greece signed by so many persons of importance and that appears in FT today February 19. Yes “the esse...

That banks are instructed to push out pension funds, widows and orphans from safe havens is absurd, and immoral.

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Sir, I refer to Percival Stanion’s “ When prospect of certain loss unleashes risk-seeking impulse ”, February 19. There are two major t...
February 18, 2015

The only deal good for both Greece and the Eurozone is not even on the table.

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Sir, you write about the need “to reduce the stranglehold of a clientelist bureaucracy over the Greek economy” and hold that “ Greece and t...

The most dangerous economic imbalance lies between “the risky” and the “absolutely safe”.

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Sir, I fully agree with the title of Martin Wolf’s article of February 18, “ Unbalanced hopes for the world economy ”; only that for me the...
February 17, 2015

At the end of the day, with these bank regulations, even Germans will suffer the same or worse tragedy than the Greeks

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Sir, bank regulators, the Basel Committee and the Financial Stability Board, fully endorsed by ECB, allowed all European banks to hold much...
February 16, 2015

Could a beneficiary sue a pension fund for blatant breach of trust if it buys a bond with negative interest?

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Sir I refer to Ralph Atkins’ and Elaine Moore’s “ Negative rates to hit financial system ”, February 16. I have a question: Could a ben...

What flight to quality? To dangerously overpopulated safe havens?

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Jonathan Wheatley quotes Stuart Oakley, global head of EM foreign exchange trading at Nomura: “The point of QE is to inflate the real econo...

Venezuela must be an Emperor Severus’ dream come true… that is until…

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Sir I refer to Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez’ “ A civilian sacrifice is more likely than a coup in Caracas ” February 16. It is a great art...
February 14, 2015

But our besserwisser bank regulators express no doubts about what banks should do.

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Sir, Henny Sender asks: “Which is better - to invest in the debt of lower-rated issuers because they offer more attractive absolute yields;...

An oil cursed country deserves more than "get-rid-of-these-to-have-these-instead”

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Sir, in Venezuela in an article I quoted extensively from Tom Burgis’ “ Nigeria unravelled ” February 14. And I ended with the following: ...
February 13, 2015

10-year US government bonds yields 1.97%. Fed declares an inflation target of 2%. Is buying those bonds a prepaid haircut?

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Sir, today, Friday the 13th, February 2015, I read on your first page that a 10-year US government bond yields 1.97%. And I ha...

Boris Johnson, if you want to help small digital companies in London, then you'd better travel to Basel than to New York

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Sir, Gillian Tett writes about Boris Johnson, the major of London, going to New York in order to look for finance sources for small digital...
February 12, 2015

What German prudence is Jűrgen Stark really talking about?

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Sir, though I agree with most that Jűrgen Stark writes in “ German prudence is not to blame for the Eurozone’s ills ” of February 12, I sti...

For access to confidential private Swiss banks accounts, why not “wealth asylum”, something like political asylum?

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Sir, John Gapper writes “there are decent reasons apart from tax evasion, or even legal tax avoidance, for the wealthy to put money in Swis...
February 11, 2015

Perhaps crony-relation-weighted equity requirements for banks could be useful in Ukraine and other places?

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Sir, I refer to Martin Wolf’s “ Help Ukraine seize this chance ” February 11. Wolf writes: “Also important will be the reform of bankin...
February 10, 2015

Anyone knows in what those “targeted corporate cash piles” are currently invested in?

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Sir, I refer to Ferdinando Giugliano’s “ Corporate cash piles targeted in hunt for growth ”, February 10. It is hard to undersand all t...

Future generations are and will pay dearly for regulators distorting bank lending in favor of sovereigns

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Sir, I refer to Christopher Thompson’s “ Risks lie in Eurozone banks’ government links ”, February 10. Thompson writes: “banks have boo...
February 09, 2015

Government spending should be based on transparent tax revenues, not on regulatory scheming.

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Sir, Lawrence Summers’ admonishes to “ Only raise rates when the whites inflation’s eyes are visible ”, February 9. Since inflation is such...

Some are unfortunately the “Too Small To Be Invited To Basel Or Davos Banks”

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Sir, Tracy Alloway reports on that “ New rules hit small US banks ‘hardest’ ” February 9. She is right, but this has been since the imposit...
February 07, 2015

Thanks to credit risk weighted equity requirements, borrowers and banks now share the objective of fooling regulators.

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Sir, Tracy Alloway refers to the transformation of unsafe loans into super-duper “safe” ones “ eBonds that strip out risk would be financia...

There are some questions that really can dent our smug feelings of righteous political correctness.

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Sir, Gillian Tett, with respect to the barbarous murders that Isis is showing off in videos, gives a “loud Amen” to Frances Larson, an anth...

Sir FT, Your “Do whatever you can, as long as you do not allow banks to take risks” is hard to understand and forgive.

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Sir, I refer to your “ Life below zero must not become the new normal: Negative rates are a cry for even more aggressive action, not less ”...
February 06, 2015

A “lack of accountability” worthy of the Guinness Book of Records

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Sir, Louis Brennan refers to Peter Doyle's letter highlighting the “unprecedented scale” of the IMF’s forecasting error in relation t...

Sir FT, what would European public borrowing cost be without bank regulations which discriminate in favor of such borrowings?

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Sir, I refer to Ralph Atkins " Greece’s clash with its creditors is part of a global challenge " February 6. It states “More cont...
February 05, 2015

Sir FT, I do not understand how you cannot find current bank regulations more than a bit loony.

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We citizens authorize governments to support banks among others with some backstop mechanisms, and not to mention the bailouts. And the...

Spain (the whole Western world) needs a manifesto that explains what happened and then inspires hope… and here is what I propose.

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Sir, Andres Ortega’s “ The debt Greece owes us is the least of Spain’s worries ” February 5 is a very responsible written article… perhaps ...

Europe, Western world, there’s no future in having banks investing in what widows and orphans should invest.

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Sir, James Macintosh, in Short View of February 5 , writes of Eurozone bonds the following: “Buy with a negative yield and sell to the ECB ...
February 04, 2015

If used as geopolitical weapons beware, credit ratings can be more dangerous to your homeland than to your enemies

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Sir, FT Alphaville should be commended for bringing up a discussion on what credit ratings can signify and which, even though it could have...
February 03, 2015

All Eurozone’s banks are also in a periphery, which is something that should be considered by ECB’s-Draghi-QEs

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Sir, I refer to Christopher Thompson’s “ Banks seek lower cost risk capital ” February 3. It states “Under proposals from international...