How does Italy break out of bank regulations which are slowly but surely shutting down its real economy?

Sir, I refer to Wolfgang Münchau’s “Italy’s chance to realign – or mess things up further” October 7. There Münchau states that, in Italy, “The most urgent task is to fix the banks. Without credit growth, there can be no sustainable recovery. The overindebted and undercapitalized banks have loaded up on Italian government bonds instead of lending to the private sector”.

Unfortunately, as that is a direct result of regulations which require banks to have about 8 percent in capital when lending to the private sector, but allow for zero capital when lending to the public sector, there is very little Italy and Enrico Letta can do about it. That is unless they distance themselves completely from the creators of this stupidity, the members of the Basel Committee and the Financial Stability Board.

Of course the fact that Mario Draghi was one of scientists, who failed in the laboratory, does not make it easier for a country that also depends on the support of the ECB.

Europe, specially its unemployed youth, is ignoring how bad their bank regulations are.

Sir, Wolfgang Münchau’s “Europe is ignoring the true scale of bank losses”, June 24, tells us European bankers and bank regulators are lying to Europeans, and, next to it Enrico Letta begs “Europe must act to end the scourge of youth joblessness". Might those issues not be connected, in the sense that not pruning the old, stops what could be the new from growing?

There is no real harm in someone private having a fake Vermeer hanging in the living room and thinking it is an original, and being congratulated for it by all his friends, but, false banks?

As I see it, if the youth of Europe is to have a chance, banks need to get reset as urgently as possible… and that means cleaning them up, a lot of new bank capital and, foremost, new regulations. Start by throwing Basel out the window.

And I say that because current bank regulations, obnoxiously favors what is officially considered “absolutely safe”, and thereby discriminates against the risky, like all unrated businesses and entrepreneurs, and thereby stand no chance of helping to allocate efficiently the resources needed in order to help create the new generation of jobs.