January 03, 2015

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

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Sir, Tracy Alloway describes the possibility of adding on, as you go along, new pieces of information that will enhance the knowledge of t...
January 02, 2015

We need bank regulators to be more like lions and less like scared of mice kittens.

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Sir, Ralph Atkins’ writes that “Across most of the Eurozone governments can borrow at historically low costs” and I wonder whether he is no...

Selling the notion of being able to make banks safe, at no cost, is pure unabridged populism.

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Sir, I refer to Tony Barber’s “Renzi is the last hope for the Italian elite” January 2. In it Barber attacks populism and writes about...
December 31, 2014

Stress testing of banks should foremost test whether these serve the real needs of the real economy.

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Sir, I refer to your “ Stress testing should not just apply to the banks ” December 31. In it you argue that “Regulators need a holisti...
December 30, 2014

Regulators are telling banks to behave​ ​meaner​ ​than Scrooge, and the Eurozone, and FT, seemingly don’t care.

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Sir, John Plender writes that “ The spirit of Scrooge hangs over the Eurozone ” “Forgive the debt or earn the wrath of its victims” Decembe...

Why should companies be banks and banks not? The real challenge for the European Commission

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Sir, I refer to Sarah Gordon’s “ Juncker’s plan needs companies to open up their healthy coffers ” December 30. And I ask why should co...

Should not US shale oil producers sit down with Opec to have a little conversation about mutual interest?

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Sir, I refer to Roula Khalaf’s “ A kingdom fit for an oil price ordeal ” December 30. It refers to a battle, supposedly for market shares, ...
December 29, 2014

Sources for disappointments are plentiful indeed: Basel III Revisions to the Standardized Approach for Credit Risks

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Sir, Wolfgang Münchau certainly sounds disappointed in “ Clever wrapping disguises Europe’s worn-out policies ” December 29. And so do I fe...

“Capitalism for hyenas” might be a more accurate description than “capitalism for friends”

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Sir, I refer to Chrystia Freeland’s “ Puttin’s populist bluster belies the loneliness of the cynic ” December 29. If for instance Andre...
December 27, 2014

$56bn in bank fines equals $1.1tn less in bank lending…minimum

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If you take that 5% capital (equity) leverage ratio they want to impose on banks in the US (in Europe only 3%) that signifies an allowed le...
December 24, 2014

Could an app which controls bank regulators’ natural sissy instincts, be the solution for our unemployed?

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Sir I refer to Lisa Pollack’s “ It’s only natural to seek an app for everything ” of December 24. It really shed lights on how we could...
December 23, 2014

Basel Committee and Financial Stability Board… please… Let it go¡

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Sir, January 2003 in a letter you published I wrote: “Everyone knows that, sooner or later, the ratings issued by the credit agencies are j...
December 22, 2014

Mentally grey regulators make banks managers of retiree’s portfolios; and stop them from building future.

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Sir Edward Luce argues that today’s pessimism, the western world’s “miserabilism”, results from us “growing older”, “ Is the west clinicall...
December 20, 2014

Regulators, in order to regulate banks, should define the purpose of banks. ​​They have not done so :-(

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Sir, I refer to Alison Mason letter “ Bankers see nothing from the client’s perspective ” December 20. In it she correctly mentions tha...
December 17, 2014

No! We can’t accept markets know more than we the experts do, can we?

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Sir, I refer to John Kay’s “ Crowd-pleasing theories are no substitute for wise regulations ” December 17. In it he writes “The wisdom ...

Regulators wrongly believe that to increase the stability of banks, they must stimulate risk-aversion.

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Sir, I refer to Martin Wolf’s “ Make policy for real, not ideal, humans ” December 17. In it and with references to the World Bank’s la...
December 16, 2014

Someone needs to put some order on this noise about Greece and its public debt to GDP.

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I have held bank regulators responsible for Greece’s excessive debt. That because anyone authorizing banks to lend to a sovereign against 1...

Tweeting "Oil: The Big Drop"

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Sir, I refer to your FT series “ Oil: The Big Drop ” December 16, in order to suggests some tweets. Oil is 97% of Venezuela’s exports, ...
December 15, 2014

On bank regulations why can’t we get to the heart of its problems? Why can’t we keep political agendas out of it?

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Sir, I refer to Edward Luce’s “ Too big to resist: Wall Street’s come back ” December 14. Anyone who with an open mind reads Daniel Kah...
December 14, 2014

France, Italy, listen, there is something more important than “liberalization of closed products and labor markets”

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Sir, You correctly refer to “the need to take aim at exactly the right problem…the bureaucratic sclerosis that chokes of innovation and gro...
December 13, 2014

Any recklessness of bankers is by far surpassed by that of their current regulators.

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Sir, Brooke Masters writes: “Reckless bankers caused the financial crisis by running their businesses without a care for the long term cons...
December 12, 2014

Do I own a copyright of myself? If so, should I not get a cut of what’s paid when advertising is tailored to me?

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Sir, I refer to your editorial on the upcoming law in Spain that indicates that “all online news aggregators will be required to pay Spanis...

With capital buffers thin, European Banks can’t handle the higher capital requirements for small business lending.

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Sir, I refer to Lex’s note on the lack demand for ECB’s TLTRO funds, “ Eurozone banks: horsing around ” December 12. It holds: “You can...

Capital (equity) requirements for banks, to be correct, need to be based on the perceived credit risks being incorrect.

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Sir, the risk weights in Basel II for an AAA to AA rated sovereign was zero percent; the risk weight for a corporate rated AAA to AA was 20...
December 11, 2014

Europe’s guardians of monetary orthodoxy should fear the printing press, while bank regulatory lunacy persists.

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Sir, Reza Moghadam holds that “ Europe’s guardians of monetary orthodoxy need not fear the printing press. ” December 11. Moghadam argu...
December 10, 2014

Martin Wolf, silly risk aversion is not part of our western values.

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In a recent OECD paper titled “ Trends in income inequality and its impact on economic growth ”, authored by Federico Cingano, we read the ...
December 09, 2014

Why do so many care so much more about the risks banks should avoid, than about the risks they should take?

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Sir, Martin Arnold in reference to Mark Carney’s, the head of the Financial Stability Board proposal for systemically important banks to ho...
December 08, 2014

A regulatory guiding hand poses great systemic risks, and often doubles down on its mistakes, like with Basel III.

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Sir, I refer to Mark Vandevelde’s “Beware the paternalist in libertarian garb” where December 8 he reviews Cass Sunstein’s book “ Valuing l...
December 07, 2014

Central banks pushing down government borrowing costs to historic lows. Is it by wooing markets, or is it a shotgun wedding?

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Sir, Ralph Atkins and Michael MacKenzie write that “the world’s biggest central banks have this year wooed financial markets, pushing down ...
December 06, 2014

Grandparents need to be very careful with grand-parenting classes arranged by their children.

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Sir, I refer to Gillian Tett’s “ When looking after baby is too serious to be left to experience ” December 6. According to an old sayi...
December 05, 2014

FT, respectfully, in reference to bank regulations, you are better off pleading ignorance.

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Sir, you refer to a bank levy that motivated banks “to slim down risky balance sheets”, as something positive, “ A misguided raid on the ba...
December 01, 2014

Could a “Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund” purchase debt of a sovereign like Venezuela, which violates human rights?

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Sir I refer to Madison Marriage report in FTfm “ Funds in cluster bomb ‘hall of shame’ ” December 1. Therein “a spokesperson for Vangua...

Silly and sissy regulatory risk-aversion is not compatible with a grown-up response to the Eurozone’s problem.

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Sir, is a massive ECB-QE liquidity injection, by means of buying safe “sovereign debt purchases”; while keeping bank regulations which forc...
November 30, 2014

ECB’s Mario Draghi should be stopped from wasting a QE in the Eurozone, even if a straitjacket is needed

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Sir, credit risk weighted capital (equity) requirements for banks make banks lend too much to what is perceived as absolutely safe and too ...
November 29, 2014

Gauging the level of understanding of Fed statements assumes, kindly, Fed understands what it writes. Does it?

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Sir, Tracy Alloway tackles the issue of “ Why Fed statements have become literally harder to read ” November 29, which generously assumes t...

If only the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision had contracted an Abraham Wald.

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Sir, Tim Harford’s recalls how the American statistician Abraham Wald when asked how to reinforce returning shot planes, advised to first f...

Do liberal values include risk-aversion? If so, bye-bye Europe

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Sir, Richard Vinen in his “ The Pope is wrong – old Europe is a new world ” of November 29 extols Europe’s liberal values. And I have a que...
November 28, 2014

While risk based capital requirements for banks remain, small companies will not have fair access to bank credit.

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Sir Sarah Gordon writes: “Smaller companies [in Europe] have also been able to take advantage of easier borrowing conditions”, “ Light amid...

Martin Wolf, stupidity is not "frighteningly near", it is already here, and it is well entrenched.

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Sir, Martin Wolf, with respect to immigration, correctly argues that “the presence of hard-working and ambitious people speaking a multitud...

“My deflation is horrible, yours, oil, not so bad”

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Sir, inflation seems to be have been identified as the number one tool to smack grandmother Europe back into fertility and force her to vib...
November 26, 2014

The real unusual economic ill we suffer, is that of regulators ordering our banks to be risk adverse.

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Sir, Martin Wolf argues for “ Radical cures for unusual economic ills ” November 26. And therein he identifies the illness as the “chro...
November 25, 2014

Simon Samuels, bank regulators’ own ‘risk culture’ is as bad as it gets

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Sir, Simon Samuel’s holds that “the driver of bank failure is not insufficient capital but rather a bad ‘risk culture’”, “ A culture ratio ...
November 24, 2014

Perhaps the US shale oil producers should join Opec

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Sir, in “ A new chapter for Opec? ” November 26, Anjli Raval and Neil Hume, describe Opec and the US shale oil-producers as competitors… an...

“Spaniards you will not have to pay Spain's debts, and you will not have to work too much” stinks pure cheap populism

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Sir, Wolfgang Münchau writes “There is nothing controversial about the statement that if debt is unsustainable it needs to be restructured”...
November 23, 2014

With no ​​jobs to pay mortgages or utilities, at least we are living in great houses. Thank you bank regulators!

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Sir, I refer to Tim Harford’s “ Why a house-price bubble means trouble ” November 22. In it Harford writes “Booming housing markets att...