June 30, 2019

FT, Western liberalism might not be obsolete but it sure isn’t what it was a couple of decades ago.

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Sir, with respect to Vladimir Putin’s recent claim — “that liberalism is obsolete” you opine his “triumphalism is misplaced. Not all of lib...
June 29, 2019

Compared to the Basel Committee’s, Thomas Gresham’ manipulations seem minor.

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Sir, Jerry Brotton in reference to John Guy’s biography of Thomas Gresham “Gresham’s Law: The Life and World of Queen Elizabeth I” quotes G...

To explain the 2008 financial crisis a two pieces puzzle could suffice.

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Sir, Tim Harford writes, “Raghuram Rajan, when he was chief economist of the IMF, came closest to predicting the 2008 financial crisis. He ...
June 28, 2019

Current bank regulators are closer to a Vladimir Putin type of regime, than to any possible Western world liberal idea.

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Sir, I refer to Lionel Barber’s and Henry Foy’s interview with Vladimir Putin. ‘ The liberal idea has become obsolete ’ June 28. Putin ...
June 25, 2019

In the Eurozone’s sovereign debt mine there is a choir of canaries going silent but, seemingly, that shall not be heard.

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Sir, Gideon Rachman concludes, “Almost all of the modern threats — from a resurgent Russia to climate change and trade wars — are much easi...
June 23, 2019

To have Green bonds really take off, the market signals must better assure the Green projects’ profitability.

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Sir, Siddarth Shrikanth writes:“Estimates suggest that a mere 5 to 10 per cent of green-bond proceeds have gone towards funding biodiversit...
June 21, 2019

How do you square negative rates with a 0% risk weight?

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Paul Horne writes, “It must be a fairly dire outlook to persuade investors to pay eurozone governments to hold their capital even as there ...

A real review of UK’s financial system requires breaching the etiquette rules of a mutual admiration club

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Sir, I refer to Huw van Steenis’ “ An opportunity for the Bank of England to rethink its priorities ” June 21. Is he really recommendin...
June 20, 2019

If a firefighter had seen an explosive artifact, and not done anything in four years to defuse it, would he still be a paid firefighter?

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Sir, as you might understand from my many letters to you I agree with most of what Ian Hirst opines on Martin Wolf’s article (“Weidmann cas...
June 12, 2019

The still ticking 0% Risk Weight Sovereign Debt Privilege bomb awaits Mario Draghi’s successor at ECB

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Sir, Martin Wolf, sort of implying Mario Draghi followed his recommendations, which of course could be true, holds that “Draghi did the rig...
June 09, 2019

America, warning, industrial policy fertilizes crony statism

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Sir, Rana Foroohar argues that America has chosen “to support a debt-driven, two-speed economy rather than one that prioritises income and ...
June 03, 2019

There are issues much more important for the future of the euro and the EU than who becomes Draghi’s successor at ECB

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Sir, Wolfgang Münchau holds that “Draghi’s successor needs intellectual curiosity and a willingness to admit errors” “ How not to select th...

John Kenneth Galbraith could very well have been asking for the impeachment of current bank regulators.

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Sir, Rana Foroohar writes “Americans still fundamentally accept the idea that the private sector always allocates resources more efficientl...
June 02, 2019

Excessively low interest rates, and excessively low capital requirement for banks, put house prices on steroids.

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Sir, Edward Ballsdon warns about how “excessively low interest rates fuelled real estate booms built on debt.” “ Once-virtuous circle has t...
June 01, 2019

Should not the private marketing of $31tn sustainability investments at least get the same scrutiny as the Green New Deal?

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Sir, Richard Henderson writes about a “$31tn push to … address the world’s ills — from climate change and child labor to the dearth of fema...
May 27, 2019

When are the Italians citizens to speak up against their statist central bankers and regulators?

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Sir, Claire Jones and Miles Johnson write: “With economic growth non-existent and government debt at more than 130 per cent of gross domest...
May 26, 2019

What if Robert Smith had asked the college and its professors for some assistance in paying off the student debts?

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Sir, I refer Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson story on billionaire Robert Smith announcing during a graduation ceremony that he would pay off the ...
May 25, 2019

The risk weighted bank capital requirements, is just a lean and mean “regression to the mean” machine.

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Sir, Tim Harford when discussing luck and reversal of fortunes, holds that genius followed by mediocrity [is] likely a “regression to the m...
May 23, 2019

Entrepreneurs should, as an absolute minimum, have the same chance for entrepreneurship than the State.

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Sir, with much lower capital requirements for banks when lending to the sovereign than when lending to citizens, regulators de facto indica...
May 22, 2019

Why are tariffs on trade with others, worse than tariffs on access to bank credit for your own?

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Sir, I refer to Martin Wolf’s spirited defense of free trade and not less spirited attack on Donald Trump for having turned the US into “a ...
May 20, 2019

A Universal Basic Income deserves to be implemented fast but carefully, little by little.

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Sir, Lex writes:“Either the Universal Basic Income (UBI) has to be unrealistically low or the tax rate to finance it is unacceptably high. ...
May 19, 2019

In EU the lines separating the real responsibilities between national and local politicians, and Brussels technocrats, are way too blurry, at least for the ordinary European citizens

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Sir, Simon Kuper writes: “In recent years, we have improvised our way into an EU that works for most Europeans of our generation. We now ha...
May 18, 2019

On Brexit, as is usual these days in most issues, it would seem that both in Britain and EU, it is more profitable to divide than unite.

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Sir, Martin Wolf writes that “In 2018 the EU’s exports to the UK were 79 per cent of its exports to the US and 153 per cent of its exports ...
May 17, 2019

When compared to Venezuela’s oil reserves, Citgo is nothing.

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Sir, Colby Smith refers to Citgo as “the last-remaining crown jewel of Venezuela” “ Stakes rise for Venezuelan assets stateside ” Alphavill...
May 15, 2019

How does the European Commission propose Eurozone’s sovereigns get out of that corner into which many of them have been painted by 0% risk weights?

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Sir, Mehreen Khan reports that the European Commission’s Spring forecast warned last week that: “The geographical make-up of the euro area’...

Three questions for Angus Deaton, the chair of The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ wide-ranging review of inequalities in UK

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Sir, I refer to Angus Deaton’s “ Inequality in America offers lessons for Britain ” May 15. I have three questions for him: Regulat...

As a consequence of too much regulatory subsidized credit, whether by deflation or inflation, both houses and sovereign debts will be worth much less.

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Sir, Martin Wolf writes: “monetary policy fosters risk-taking, while regulation discourages it — a recipe for instability.” “ How the long ...
May 09, 2019

Sooner or later redistribution profiteers will meddle with any wealthy sovereign wealth fund.

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Sir, with respect to “the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund” Norway’s, Richard Milne writes: “The danger is that one of the few soverei...
May 08, 2019

FT, when helping covering up for bank regulators’ mistakes, do you lie awake, or do you sleep like a baby?

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Sir, Sarah O’Connor writes “We could use more leaders in politics and business who doubt themselves, who seek the opinions of others and wh...

Central banks, when targeting, should start by making sure they are targeting the correct target; and the last thing they should do, is to promote distortions in the allocation of bank credit.

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Sir, Marie Owens Thomsen writes: “Today, governments tend to run only budget deficits, making them rather structural. This leads to ever-ri...
May 05, 2019

When experts on different aspects collaborate they should be able to disagree, not just join a mutual admiration club.

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Sir, Tim Harford writes about “a flawed statistical study by Winston Churchill’s scientific adviser Frederick Lindemann that no one had bot...
April 29, 2019

A Neo-Inquisition is at work protecting mutual admiration clubs, like the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision

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Sir, Ian Goldin writes “Today, the increasing depth of knowledge in any field means that greater specialisation is needed to master ideas. ...
April 27, 2019

Central banks seem not able to tell their magic porridge pot to stop

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Sir, Robert Armstrong, Oliver Ralph, and Eric Platt make a reference to the fairy tale of the magic porridge pot writing “Every working day...
April 24, 2019

Martin Wolf, as part of the elite, should read the “Explanatory Note on the Basel II IRB Risk Weight Functions”, and then tell us ordinary people what he opines of it.

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Sir, even if qualifying for degrees of sophistication, when Martin Wolf places a human rights violating dictator Nicolas Maduro in the same...
April 20, 2019

The more voluminous data is, and the faster it is transmitted, the faster we can be sent over a cliff.

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Sir, Robin Wigglesworth writes: “The amount of digital data around the world is unimaginably vast. As more of our social and economic activ...

Any winner in a second Brexit referendum should want to make sure his would not be a Pyrrhic victory.

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Sir, Simon Kuper writes: “Only voting Remain will end the stress and tedium (the national divide will remain whoever wins)”, “ How Remain c...
April 19, 2019

To unite Britain, Brexiters and Remainers must negotiate a compromise. Sadly, its polarization profiteers object to that.

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Sir, Martin Wolf writes: “Brexit, has weaponised identity, turning those differences into accusations of treason. … Once the idea of “treac...