April 29, 2009

In this crisis, many wish for the cloak of invisibility.

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Sir there is no way you could understand what happened in this financial crisis if you do not read what Basel II contains. It is not only t...
April 27, 2009

How could AIG have resisted?

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Sir, though Eric Dinallo is right in saying that “ Marriage not dating, is the key to healthy regulation ” April 27, it is at the same time...
April 26, 2009

The dollar is the whole world’s s.o.b.

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The last of my 15 letters that the Financial Times published before I was silenced was the following dated October 4, 2006 and which said th...
April 25, 2009

Who is then going to be the bad cop?

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Sir, the world needs a good cop and a bad cop, but can really do without a wishy-washy cop. Listening, during the spring meetings in Washing...
April 24, 2009

We deserve something different than the current crop of regulators

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Sir Timothy Geithner in “We must keep at the process of repair and reform” April 24 mentions that “the Financial Stability Forum, renamed t...
April 23, 2009

Mark-to-market?

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Sir William Cohan’s “Clever wheezes will not mend the banks” April 23 touches on one of the hardest questions to answer… namely should we ma...

From Basel II into Solvency II… has the European Parliament lost it?

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As reported by Nikki Tait and Paul J Davies, April 23, not only do the higher risks have to pay higher insurance rates because the market so...
April 22, 2009

The regulators changed the odds at the casino... surreptitiously

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Sir, John Kay in “ How economics lost sight of the real world ” April 22, writes that “grossly imperfect information have led us to where we...
April 20, 2009

The regulatory innovations are the ones to blame, not the financial.

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Ben Bernanke in his most recent speech, April 17, 2009 said “Where does financial innovation come from? In the United States in recent decad...
April 17, 2009

The value of the CDS depend a lot on who contracts them

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Sir Henny Sender in “CDS derivatives are blamed for role in bankruptcy filings” April 17 reports on how this type of instrument changes the ...
April 16, 2009

You need to stress-test the American taxpayer first

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Sir in “America’s fate is not in its hands” April 16, you mention the stress tests of the financial sector. Much more important than that wo...
April 15, 2009

What bedevilled the world was the belief in certainty.

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Sir Edmund Phelps writes that “ Uncertainty bedevils the best system ” April 15 and though I agree of course with that uncertainty is part ...

Do not just blame some financial oligarchs but follow the profits instead

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Sir Martin Wolf is right in that “Cutting back financial capitalism is America’s big test” April 15, but this has much less to do with cutti...
April 12, 2009

There is nothing so risky than what is seen as risk-free

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The basic capital requirement for the banks established by the Basel Committee is 8% which results in a 12.5 to leverage. But since assets a...
April 08, 2009

What we have is a genetically modified Black Swan

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Sir if you throw a coin, betting on head or tail, and then suddenly it lands on its side then that is a real and natural Black Swan event. ...
April 07, 2009

A chance for many bankers to be much better bankers

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Sir my eldest daughter works for a large Canadian bank and so I have a vested interest in Gillian Tett’s “A chance for banker to refocus the...
April 03, 2009

The sincerity of the authorities matter more than their commitment to stability.

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Sir Martin Wolf in “Credibility is key to policy success” April 3, writes that “a central bank’s unconventional monetary operations are reve...
April 02, 2009

The value of our cash is diluted in an ocean of cash, which effectively makes of “quantitative easing” just another tax.

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Sir, Krishna Guha in “ Easing by world’s central banks take a variety of forms ” April 2, mentions that “Expanding the money supply creates ...

What we foremost need are capital requirements that cover for the risks that what is rated AAA is not really AAA.

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Sir in Chris Giles’ “Harmony is main item on the agenda” April 2 mentions “Banks will be required to hold more capital in future and everyon...

Eerie!

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Sir Just on word comes to mind when reading your pre G20 summit reports April 2... Eerie! It feels like sitting in a cellar waiting for the ...

To reduce the too many cars it might be better to eliminate some infrastructure, like some roads.

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Sir you use as an illustration for Mathew Green’s report on lacking infrastructure a photo from Lagos from which one could conclude that it ...
March 31, 2009

And then there is also the “too bad to regulate”.

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Sir Peter Thal Larsen writing about financial regulations in “A lot to be straightened out” March 31 comments on the option to submit the “t...
March 30, 2009

FT should not give Alan Greenspan voice just so he can utter platitudes.

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Sir you keep on giving voice, more than a third of your most important Comment page, second week in a row, to someone like Alan Greenspan wh...
March 27, 2009

A wanted safe haven is not the same as a wanted permanent home.

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Sir Michael Mackenzie reports on “Concern at size of debt auctions” March 27, and of course they should be very concerned as so much of the ...

That plus 20%

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Sir when Adam Thomson reports that “Calderón challenges Obama on drugs war” he quotes the Mexican president saying in reference to the help ...

Greenspan commanded an amazingly naïve and gullible generation of financial regulators.

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Sir Alan Greenspan starts out his “We need a better cushion against risk” March 27 with his silly chorus that all this mess was because we t...

If only the AAA had applied

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Sir Gideon Rachman in “Sensitive words” March 27 draws our attention to an extremely sensible institution, Companies House that has to appro...
March 25, 2009

As a “global risk assessor” there is nothing like keeping the free press on its toes.

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Sir Nicholas Stern is absolutely right in that “The world needs an unbiased global risk assessor” March 25, and his proposal on how to set u...

Are we multiplying the systemic risk?

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Sir I agree completely with Martin Wolf´s concluding reaction “If this is not frightening, I do not know what is” “Why a successful US bank ...

Where have you been minister?

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Sir Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is right reminding of us of the need to be very clear about what went wrong to cause this crisis in order not...
March 24, 2009

It must hurt GE so much

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Sir I have nothing whatsoever to do with GE but when Francesco Guerrera reports “Moody´s strips GE of triple A rating it has held for 42 yea...
March 23, 2009

In times like these more willingness to take risk is needed at the IMF and the World Bank.

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Sir I entirely support Trevor Manuel´s “IMF needs reform to respond to changing mandates”, March 23, where he calls for much more diversity ...

A regulatory bias that favours the big prevails

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Sir Clive Crook recommends to “Strike faster on death-wish finance” March 23 and he is right though that would clearly require a dramatic re...
March 21, 2009

The real question is what does the market have to say in general about retroactive laws?

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Forget about the AIG executives, the real question to be made is whether a country that has to hit the markets to the tune of a couple of tr...

The world has a serious shortage of elites.

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Sir at long last we might now be starting to debate what should have been debated all the time namely how to ensure true accountability and ...
March 20, 2009

Do not tax Gekko-style risk-taking.

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Sir Gillian Tett writes about “That secret desire for burst of Gekko-style risk-taking” March 20 and that must lie very close to the heart o...

The Turner report is not even close to being a watershed.

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Sir I have tried to figure the why of Martin Wolf´s “ Why the Turner report is a watershed for finance ” March 20, but I can´t. A regulator...
March 17, 2009

Europe, hand over two chairs, immediately, no discussions

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Sir Trevor Manuel in his commendable, timely and important “Let fairness triumph over corporate profit” March 17, asks several “Can we…?” an...

Whistleblowers of the world unite!

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“Managers need to listen before disaster strikes” writes Michael Skapinker March 17. Everyone agrees none argue against it and still it is a...
March 16, 2009

There is exactly where the going forwards must begin

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Sir Tony Jackson really shows he got his priorities right with his “Proper or improper, banks need society’s control” March 16. This is exac...
March 12, 2009

FT, please don’t give up on the market.

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Sir if you believe that a super-regulator is capable to control systemic risk without generating new and even worse systemic risk it is clea...

Cheap money? Cheap credit? Humbug!

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Sir, Chrystia Freeland in “ The audacity for help ” March 12, mentions “the era of cheap money” and “the end of cheap credit” May I suggest ...

Doing a little sleeping with the enemy, aren’t we?

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Though it is clear that the faulty ratings issued by the credit rating generated more real losses than what 50 Madoffs could have done it is...
March 10, 2009

You too FT

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Sir in “The consequence of bad economics” you accuse our leaders of intellectual failure and blame their “unwillingness to see (or their wil...

Complete truths are the best compasses

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Sir as usual Gillian Tett has written a good article in “Lost through destructive creation” March 10. Having said that let me express two co...

Muito obrigado!

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Sir we should all give thanks to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reminding us that “The future of human beings is what matters” March 10. In days ...
March 09, 2009

And the truths are the needed seeds for its reconstruction

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Sir Martin Wolf gets to set the tone in the series on “The future of capitalism” and titles his opening article “Seeds of its own destructio...

Let’s be clear about the true origin of the financial “snake-oil”.

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Sir Robert Shiller in “ A failure to control the animal spirits ” March 9,  completely ignores that the “snake oil” the financial world boug...
March 07, 2009

AIG was only an addict and the Basel Committee its pusher

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Sir, Henny Sender in “ AIG saga shows how dangerous credit default swaps can be ”, March 8, writes interestingly about the “regulatory capit...

Yes, it has indeed a lot to do with the battle among generations.

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Sir, John Authers is correct bringing in the baby boomers in the equation that explains the current crisis “ Why baby boomers will put their...
March 06, 2009

A UK financed overnight?

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Sir John Authers in “The Short View” March 6 writes about the Bank of England’s plan to buy long dated gilts…which will make money cheaper b...
March 05, 2009

But Hank had company.

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Sir John Gapper in “Too long in the spaceship, Hank” March 5, mentions that AIG´s “biggest money-spinner was regulatory arbitrage”. Exactly!...

I will gladly trade you one Basel Committee for a hundred of offshore financial centres.

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Sir Avinash Persaud is absolutely right when he writes “Look for onshore, not offshore scapegoats”. The damage produced by the onshore encla...

Revamp completely the minimum capital requirements for the banks

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Sir (as you probably must gather from my hundreds of letters to you on the subject and that you decided to ignore for reasons of your own) I...

A bit of navel-gazing, haven’t we?

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Sir Paul Keating is absolutely right in saying that “Global financial confidence, once destroyed, requires myriad positive events and a heav...
March 03, 2009

Pushing for a green recovery requires also reducing the conflicting market signals.

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Sir Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern write “Providing a strong, stable carbon price is the single policy action that is likely to have the...
March 02, 2009

The credit rating agencies were not just innocent bystanders

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Sir, Vickie Tillman, Executive Vice-President of Standard & Poor Ratings Services, in “Rating firms do not capture risk in one measure”,...
February 26, 2009

And now what?

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And now what? And now what is society to tell all those who entered into private social security schemes all over the world? Sorry chaps you...
February 25, 2009

But would they listen?

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Martin Wolf suggests “What Obama should tell the leaders of the Group of 20”, February 25 and it all sounds so extremely intelligent and rat...
February 23, 2009

Credit rating agencies...indispensable? Absolute nonsense!

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Sir although you finally admit to the lead role the credit rating agencies played in causing this crisis you still hold that we can’t live w...
February 18, 2009

If interest rates fell, borrowings would still jump.

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Sir Martin Wolf writes “When interest rates fell in the early 80’s, borrowing jumped. The chances of igniting a surge in borrowing now are c...
February 17, 2009

In order to reform regulations we need first to reform the regulators.

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Sir John Dizard is calling the bluff of the regulators in “The inside story of reforms is that there is no story” February 17. Well done! No...

Sorry, if I am a party pooper

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Sir Mohamed El-Erian finds a silver lining for our current crisis in that “As the risks become clearer, a greater degree of international po...

Will the world trust the American taxpayer?

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Sir Mohamed El-Erian in respect to the Federal Reserve being “prepared” to buy Treasury bonds asks “Will the world be comfortable with two U...
February 13, 2009

“Tea with FT” is your External Devil’s Advocate

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Sir in “Sounding off” February 13 you speak about the importance for an institution of a “Devil’s Advocate appointed to challenge and probe ...

The debate has been sequestered by the machos and the wimps.

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Sir Samuel Brittan seems to divide us economic debater between the machos, those who hold that this is no time for hesitance, better too muc...
February 12, 2009

Balloons explode, don’t they?

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It is amazing that so soon after having witnessed what disasters comes from having empowered credit agencies to put up their AAA signs showi...
February 11, 2009

Limit and subsidize credit card rates

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I heard Geithner in the Congress and I read Martin Wolf’s “Why Obama’s new Tarp will fail to rescue the banks” February 11 and it is clear t...
February 10, 2009

The scary cognitive dissonance of the Basel Committee

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Sir Whitney Tilson in “Lessons to be learnt from losses” February 10 writes about some harmless “cognitive dissonance” in a group “who belie...
February 06, 2009

A KeynesKeynesKeynes economic plan?

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Sir Benn Steil is both correct and timely with his “Keynes and the triumph of hope over economics” February 6. But, just as well, he could h...

Do not dangerously overcrowd the safe-havens.

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Sir Willem Buiter in “The ‘submerging market’ crisis”, February 6, proposes that the US and UK Treasuries should cover the Fed and the Bank ...
February 04, 2009

The world needs a Davos meeting without financiers

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I just received a letter from one of those big banks that has recently received billions of dollars in official assistance. It informs me th...
January 30, 2009

Anything you can rate I can rate better!

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We have just been served proof of how dangerous systemic risk are was when the regulators induced the world to follow the advice of some few...
January 29, 2009

Is George Soros long on oil from Texas?

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Sir George Soros in “The game changer” January 29, instead for advocating for a tax on the gas at the pump so that the gas is used less and ...
January 28, 2009

Governments and politicians should feel much less smug.

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Sir Martin Wolf shows us to be between a rock and a hard place in “Why dealing with the huge debt overhanging is so difficult” January 28. O...

Money, money, and money.

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Sir Jeffrey Sachs is absolutely right when in “The Tarp is a fiscal straitjacket”, January 28, he urges for a “sound medium-term fiscal fram...

What freewheeling?

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Sir Gillian Tett in “Bankers and bureaucrats seek a new philosophy” January 28, she mentions that “Western Governments… know they cannot ret...
January 27, 2009

Desperation is indeed a bad counsel

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Sir Peter Boone and Simon Johnson make a proposal for how to re-privatise the de-facto nationalized banks by means of the government receivi...
January 23, 2009

The government needs to provide venture capital for new banks.

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Sir George Soros discusses “The right and wrong way to bail out the banks” January 23, as if bailing out the banks was our problem. We need ...

The rating agencies credibility is not a result of any market

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Sir Paul De Grauwe is right suggesting to alert the investors with a label that says “Warning: rating agencies can do you harm” January 23; ...
January 22, 2009

Geithner could be heading onto the wrong direction.

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Sir FT reports quite extensively on the confirmation hearings of Timothy Geithner, the Treasury nominee held by the US Senate’s Finance Comm...

It might neither be time for an international symphony orchestra

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Sir you hold that a global financial crisis requires global co-operation and therefore it is “Not a time for a one man-band” January 22. Bu...

The nuclear bridge

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Sir, whether sturdy or weak, safe or dangerous, short or long, no matter how we look at it the nuclear energy is the best and perhaps even t...

Mr Jouyet cannot have the cake and eat it too

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Sir as reported by Paul J Davies in “France demands stronger ratings supervision” January 22, it looks like Mr Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the Frenc...
January 21, 2009

Let us pray it is not too late.

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Sir Peter Thal Larsen reports January 21 that the “UK regulator helps to ease the pressure” lowering the capital requirements for banks when...

Let our bankers become bankers again.

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Sir Mohamed El-Erian says “We have to bring the banking sector back to life” January 21, because “Banks play an important role in any econom...

Obama has more than enough on his own plate

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Sir Martin Wolf is right blaming an absolutely excessive consumption gap between deficit countries led by the US and surplus countries led b...
January 19, 2009

How do we get better regulations with the same not-accountable regulators?

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Sir Frank Partnoy holds that “It is ironic that credit rating agencies still retain such power. They were a significant cause of the crisis....

Eurozone prayers!

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Sir Wolfgang Münchau describes the Eurozone as resilient enough to handle a sovereign debt crisis scenario thinking that “a full-fiscal unio...

In taxes we need to start from scratch.

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Sir I certainly appreciate Clive Crook’s “Four fixes for America’s fiscal fiasco” January 19, since the very first thing that came to my min...
January 17, 2009

How we now wish the regulators had let things be!

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Sir no one would contradict Chris Giles’s opinion that “Regulation is small price for protection from another crunch” January 17, the questi...
January 16, 2009

It is not a question of stimulus against public investments.

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Sir Joseph Stiglitz pleads “Do not squander America’s stimulus on tax cuts” January 16 preferring the investment in infrastructure. The issu...