The willingness to take risks is the true locomotive of an economy

Sir, Sir Samuel Brittan ends his “Britain has a funny way of firing up the locomotive” of January 18 with “Keynes…was up against the self-destructive instincts of political leaders, who transferred home truths about family budgets to wrong-headed principles for running national economies.” 

Indeed, just as I am up in arms against the self-destructive instincts of bank regulators, and who transfer home truths about individual risk avoidance into wrong-headed principles for our banks. 

Sir, again, for the umpteenth time, if you know all bank crises have been caused by excessive exposures to some erroneously classified as absolutely safe, why on earth, as Basel regulations require, need banks to hold much more capital when lending to “The Risky” than when lending to The Infallible? 

It is any risk-taking austerity that most causes a nation to stall and fall. The willingness to take risks that is the true locomotive of an economy. And that is precisely why we go to our churches to pay “God make us daring!” while ignoring that some besserwisser regulators have kept themselves busy castrating our banks.