August 10, 2015

The established bank regulatory elite is doing what they can to hinder the discovery of their mega-mistake

Sir, Martin Sandbu speculates that the insistence on Greece following “austerity and monetary tightening” might be because “the established elites cannot afford to admit that they were wrong” "Democracy at the heart of fight for Greece.” August 10.

Of course the elites do not want to admit they were wrong, but in this case the real mistake has little to do with their austerity and monetary tightening, and all to do with regulations.

I am absolutely convinced that without the loony capital requirements for banks that gave banks so large incentives to lend to Greece, the current Greek tragedy would not have happened.

And I am also absolutely convinced that if Greece, and the rest of the world for that matter, does not get rid of these credit-risk weighted capital requirements, those which hinder the fair access to bank credit for those perceived as “risky”, like SMEs and entrepreneurs, there is no way economies can regain healthy sustainable growth. 

It would be so easy to perform an autopsy to identify what I suggest is the source of the problem, the problem though is that many of those who created the problem, do also control much of current autopsy procedures.

Would that not make an interesting thriller, having the one who poisoned performing the autopsy?

@PerKurowski