Even governments represent counter-party risks
Sir in “The legacy of Lehman Brothers” you write “Policymakers must own up to the fact that there are some institutions they can never credibly claim they will let fail. They must identify who they are implicitly backstopping so that they can charge a fee for that insurance” September 14.
This is indeed truly dangerous talk when what we need is for our regulators to be much more trigger happy, allowing bad institutions to fail; and when we know that the fees for such eternal life insurance would never be set objectively nor would it be set apart in a reserve, and so that, sooner or later, the final failure of any of these supreme institution, could bring the State down with it.
The economy does not need more government insurances than the ones currently awarded to individual depositors up to limited amounts, and to give more is counterproductive to the well-being of all of us, since an insurance is only worth as much as the insurance company is worth; and we do face a counter-party risk even when dealing with governments.
This is indeed truly dangerous talk when what we need is for our regulators to be much more trigger happy, allowing bad institutions to fail; and when we know that the fees for such eternal life insurance would never be set objectively nor would it be set apart in a reserve, and so that, sooner or later, the final failure of any of these supreme institution, could bring the State down with it.
The economy does not need more government insurances than the ones currently awarded to individual depositors up to limited amounts, and to give more is counterproductive to the well-being of all of us, since an insurance is only worth as much as the insurance company is worth; and we do face a counter-party risk even when dealing with governments.
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