Financial Times - FT: Sir, on the causes of the crisis of Greece, how about some journalistic honesty from yourself?
Sir, you write that “Ms Merkel has allowed the entire euro crisis to be portrayed within Germany as a fiscal mess caused by profligate peripheral countries. This analysis ignores the role of the financial bubble fuelled by banks — including Germany’s”. And then you title it as “The need for honesty in the crisis over Greece”, August 22.
But this Merkel analysis, and your analysis, ignores what I have been writing to you about in over a hundred of letters over the last decade, namely that the financial bubble fuelled by banks, was a direct result of Basel’s credit-risk weighted capital requirements for banks.
You know, because I do not believe you dumb, that had banks needed to hold the same capital they are required to hold when lending to any European SME or entrepreneur, 8 percent, instead of the 1.6 percent or less allowed by regulators when they lent to the Greek government, this Greek tragedy would not have resulted, no matter how much Greece might have manipulated its financial data.
You even published a letter of mine I wrote in November 2004 in which I asked: “how many Basel propositions it will take before they start realizing the damage they are doing by favoring so much bank lending to the public sector. In some developing countries, access to credit for the private sector is all but gone, and the banks are up to the hilt in public credits.”
So may I suggest it is high time for the Financial Times to also display some honesty over the causes of the crisis in Greece. Who are you covering up for? Is it perhaps for some too delicate big egos? Is yours really ethical journalism? Dare to live up to your motto!
@PerKurowski
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