September 03, 2012

Mr. Draghi, nothing good comes from distorting the markets

Sir, Wolfgang Münchau, in “Here is my one piece of advice for Mr. Draghi” September 3, writes “the banking sector intermediates the imbalances that have arisen in the real economy”. 

Is Mr. Münchau really sure about that? The way I see it the regulators, with their capital requirements for banks based on perceived risk, and their risk weights, both create and intermediate more than the banks the imbalances in the real economy. 

Can you for instance think of what would happen if a German bank needed to hold the same amount of capital when lending to a small business in Greece than when lending to the German government. 

My advice for Mr. Draghi, without any doubts, would be to stop his colleagues the bank regulators from distorting the markets, since nothing good can come of that.