September 05, 2012

There’s an economic war raging out there, so we need ministers and bank regulators with vision, not janitors and nannies!

Sir, Josef Joffe’s “Merkel’s case of good politics and bad economics” September 5, makes a solid case for buying gold and go to church and pray (and perhaps buy a gun) 

What can I say? There’s an economic war raging out there and we need our finance ministers and bank regulators to be men of vision, not janitors or nannies! Has anyone seen a Lord Keynes lately? 

Personally, and not as a Lord Keynes by any means, but as a simple consultant with quite a lot of workout experience, on a recent Labor-With-No-Jobs-Day, I thought that the following could be a good idea for Europe and America to explore: 

There is currently a tremendous scarcity of bank capital, and all fresh capital raised is going to plug holes instead of generating the new business needed… and so we are in dire need of traditional bank capital, not that silly modern stuff. 

In this respect I would gladly contemplate granting a 15 years full exoneration from corporate and dividend taxes, to whatever bank capital is raised by a banks that agrees to hold 15 percent in capital against any asset, no matter how safe or risky it might seem. 

There is a world of productive risk-taking waiting out there to get our youngster their generation of good jobs… let’s give them a chance. 

I would love to see 500 billion Euros (dollars) in this type of fresh bank capital...which could be leveraged into over 3 trillion Euros (dollars) in loans which do not discriminate based on perceived risks more than what they should ordinary do in a free market. 

That could mean a fresh start for our economies and a full-stop to that other war our current bank-nannies are waging against the "risky".