December 21, 2019

Should financing human rights’ violators help fund US pensions?

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Sir, I refer to Colby Smith’s “ Year began with ‘hardcore fear of missing out’ but now holders of Caracas debt have lost hope ” December 21...
December 19, 2019

Sir FT, do you, or our dear The Undercover Economist Tim Harford, have an explanation for what is a monstrous regulatory mistake?

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Sir, I refer to Tim Harford’s “ The Changing Face of Economics ” December 19. As an economist, if I were to regulate or supervise banks...
December 14, 2019

The bank capital requirements for Greek banks when lending to its government, should be the same as when lending to Greek entrepreneurs.

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Sir, Kerin Hope reports: “Christos Staikouras, the finance minister, told the Greek parliament the Hercules scheme would boost the stabilit...
December 09, 2019

Sovereign borrowings are never “for free”. There are always opportunity costs, especially when there’s so much distortion favoring it.

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Sir, you hold that “Fiscal stimulus can relieve monetary policy if invested wisely” “ Governments must learn to love borrowing again ” Dece...
December 04, 2019

Bank regulators rigged capitalism in favor of the state and the “safer” present and against the “riskier” future.

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Sir, Martin Wolf with respect to needed financial sector reforms mentions “Radical solution: raise the capital requirements of banking inte...
November 30, 2019

Artistic inheritance does not cause excessive centralized powers, as too often natural resources do...though intellectual inheritance could

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Sir, Janan Ganesh discussing the possible effect on Europe of its “intellectual and artistic inheritance” refers to the natural“resource cu...
November 27, 2019

Beware when issues, no matter how important, like climate change, become mostly discussed because of their distraction value

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Sir, Martin Wolf, after taking on a history tour argues: “A positive-sum vision of relations between the west, China and the rest has to be...
November 16, 2019

Current bank regulations are evidence free rather than evidence based

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Tim Harford suggests, “Pick a topic that matters to you”, “ How to survive an election with your sanity intact ” November 16. Ok. Bank ...
November 15, 2019

If Brexit goes hand in hand with a Baselexit, Britain will at least do better than now.

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Sir, Martin Wolf titles, [and I add], “ Irresponsible promises will hit brutal economic reality " November 15. Just like the irrespo...
November 03, 2019

If US’s 50 states had been assigned a 0% risk weight, as was done in the Eurozone, where would America and the US dollar be?

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Sir, Gyorgy Matolcsy opines: “Two decades after the euro’s launch, most of the necessary pillars of a successful global currency — a common...
November 01, 2019

Who is going to fact check the political ads on social media fact checkers? Big Brothers?

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Sir, you opine: “The spread of political advertising on social media requires companies fact-check political ads in collaboration with trus...
October 30, 2019

Well-invested small savings surpluses are better than big ones thrown away at fluffy sovereign spending projects.

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Sir, Martin Wolf correctly points out “Without the shelter of the eurozone, the Deutschmark would have greatly appreciated in a low-inflati...
October 29, 2019

What the Eurozone would need a common budget the most for, is to help rescue many of its members from their huge risky 0% risk weighted sovereign debts.

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Sir, Martin Arnold reports that Mario Draghi, “the outgoing ECB boss repeated his call for eurozone governments to create a sizeable common...
October 07, 2019

The dangerous distortions in the allocation of credit that risk weighted bank capital requirements cause, is seemingly something that shall not be discussed.

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... not even by those former central bankers who refuse to fade away Sir, with respects to “the attack on the European Central Bank’s b...
September 23, 2019

The Basel Committee jammed banks’ gearboxes… not only in India

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Amy Kazmin reporting on India quotes Rajeev Malik, founder of Singapore-based Macroshanti, in that “A well-oiled, well-functioning financi...
September 21, 2019

In banking, the worst worse case scenario by far, is something perceived as very safe turning out to be very risky

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Sir, Tim Harford writes “We don’t think about worst-case scenarios in the right way.” “To help us think sensibly about it, Gary Klein has a...
September 18, 2019

For capitalism to refunction, first get rid of the risk weighted bank capital requirements.

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Sir, Martin Wolf quotes HL Mencken with “For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.” “ Saving capitalis...
September 16, 2019

Warning! Big Tech might be drawn into a too close too dangerous for us relation with Big Brother.

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Sir, Ms. Rana Foroohar writes: “Whatever their size, the winning companies will be those that are profitable. That may sound obvious, but i...

Expert technocrats, like those in the Basel Committee, can be shameless and dangerous populists too.

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Sir, Takeshi Niinami writes “Japan’s populism leads to mounting government debt and short-term solutions for immediate issues without a cle...
September 15, 2019

Any populism your populist can do mine can do better; mine can do populism much better than yours.

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Sir, Gillian Tett, when discussing populism and populists writes, “Nor is it obvious that Mr Trump will lose in 2020. If you look at recent...
September 14, 2019

What a pity Martin Weitzman did not chair the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision. If he had we would surely not have suffered the 2008 crisis.

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Sir, Tim Harford when referring to an economic paper by Martin Weitzman on climate change classifies it as a “this changes everything” pape...
September 13, 2019

Two regulations will turn the beautiful dream of the European Union into a nightmare.

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Sir, Ignazio Angeloni writing that “The ECB houses hundreds of experienced, dedicated [bank] supervisor” blames “fundamental weakness in th...
September 07, 2019

Ms. Gillian Tett, what is that we really have, capitalism or statism?

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Sir, Gillian Tett lectures us interestingly with “If you want to understand what is at stake in this debate, it pays to consider the origin...

Regulators instructed banks to compete with small savers and insurance companies for whatever was perceived as safe.

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Sir, Michael Mackenzie writes “the concern that investors will extend their embrace of riskier assets and of private markets that are far l...
August 28, 2019

How can Eurozone’s sovereigns’ debts, not denominated in their own national/printable fiat currency, be considered 100% safe?

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Sir, Laurence Fletcher in Tail Risk of August 28, writes: “Yields on German Bunds and other major government bonds have been moving steadi...
August 22, 2019

With respect to Eurozone sovereign debts, European banks were officially allowed to ignore credit ratings.

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Sir, Rachel Sanderson writes, “Data from the Bank of Italy on holdings of Italian government debt, usually the prime conduit of contagion, ...
August 19, 2019

Risk weighted bank capital requirements are anathema to neoliberalism

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Sir, Rana Foroohar writes “we have spent decades of living in the old reality — the post-Bretton Woods, neoliberal one.” " Markets are...
August 15, 2019

Regulators forced banks into what’s perceived safe, thereby forcing the usually most risk adverse into what’s perceived risky.

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Sir, Robin Wigglesworth writes “Many investors such as pension funds and insurers [are] pushed towards the only other option: venturing int...

In 1988 one year before the Berlin Wall fell another wall was constructed, one which separated sovereign and private bank borrowings.

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Sir, I refer to Ben Hall’s “ State ownership back in vogue 30 years after fall of Berlin Wall ” August 15. The only real competitive ad...
August 12, 2019

Venezuela needs to extract its oil much more than what it needs Citgo.

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Sir, Colby Smith and Gideon Long report that “Venezuela has long been fearful of missing a payment on Citgo’s debt — the country’s only bon...

Any new IMF managing director should at least know, as a minimum minimorum, that two current important financial policies are more than dumb.

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Sir, I refer to John Taylor’s “Choice of new IMF head must not be dictated by the old EU order” August 12. I have no problems whatsoeve...
August 09, 2019

Before ECB does one iota more, we must get rid of the loony portfolio invariant credit risk weighted bank capital requirements.

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Sir, Rick Rieder writes, “A thoughtful consideration of where and how capital is being applied could have a positive influence that lasts d...
August 07, 2019

Central banks and regulators are wittingly or unwittingly imposing communism by stealth, at least in Japan.

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Sir, you refer to that Bank of Japan’s holdings of government bonds are already at more than 40 per cent of the outstanding stock… and to “...
August 05, 2019

The battle between capital and labour may be surpassed by the battle between the working class and the not working class.

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Rana Foroohar announces, “The age of wealth distribution is coming and will have major investment consequences”, “ The age of wealth accumu...

Don’t keep adding bank regulations for what is ex ante perceived risky. It is what is ex ante perceived as very safe that should concern us the most.

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Sir, I refer to Sheila Bair discussion of how much banks are to set aside in order to cover for loan losses. “ Congress should stay out of ...
July 31, 2019

If ECB’s original QEs stimuli had not been distorted by credit risk weighted bank capital requirements, there would be much less need for additional QEs.

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Sir, Claire Jones writes: “EU treaties prevent the ECB from financing member governments by buying their debt, a tactic known as monetary f...
July 18, 2019

What keeps IMF and World Bank so silent on bank regulations that go against their respective mission?

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Sir, you argue, “If the IMF and the World Bank were to disappear, the absence of their combination of expertise, credibility and cash would...
July 17, 2019

With bank regulations biased against risk taking, the oxygen of development, emerging has been made so much more difficult for nations

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Sir, I refer to Jonathan Wheatley’s report on emerging markets “ Falling further behind ” July 17.  Banks used to apportion their credi...
July 16, 2019

The case against insane globalism also remains strong.

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The purpose of the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision BCBS, established in 1974 is to encourage convergence toward common approaches a...