March 16, 2012
Sir, I am not sure about the applicability to banks of Gillian Tett´s “Regulators should get a grip on traders´ hormones” March 16, since Mark Twain´s “A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain” would indicate that the testosterone level of bankers is far from being abnormally high.
But what might behoove us is to test the regulators hormones. When these decided that even though banks were already clearing for perceived risks of default of borrowers by means of interest rates, amounts exposed and other terms, they should also consider those same perceptions for their capital requirements, they most definitely evidenced what would seem to be a severe case of lack of testosterone.
As a direct consequence of the risk-adverseness of the regulatory nannies, we are now suffering from obese bank exposures to what was officially perceived as absolutely not risky, like triple-A rated securities and infallible sovereigns, and anorexic exposures to what was officially perceived as risky, like the small businesses and entrepreneurs.