November 01, 2013

Jacob Frenkel has his, and I have my own cross examination dream

Sir, Jacob Frenkel, a lawyer, dreams of “cross examining all the senior government officials… who begged JPMorgan to save the US and take over Bear Sterns and WaMu” with a “the government is asking you to find liable and impose massive fines on this institution, which tried to help, not hurt, the American economy”, “The madness of the $13bn JPMorgan settlement”, November 1.

I, as a grandfather, would dream instead of cross examining all the bank regulators asking them “Why do you require banks to hold more capital against loans to those perceived as “risky” than against those perceived as infallible, even though the first are already being charged higher risk premiums, get smaller loans, in harsher terms, and have never ever caused a major bank crisis?”

Don’t you know that those we most have to thanks for having some “absolutely safe” today are the “risky” of yesterday? Don’t you know that those who best stand a chance of helping my grandchild to find a decent and sturdy job tomorrow might very well be those “risky” most in need of access to bank credit in competitive terms, like the medium and small businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups?