It is truly incredible how many dare to ascertain things they can have no real idea of. Fake-opinions?

Sir, Chris Giles refers to that Theresa May ended a conversation with a brusque: “You can have all the evidence in the world, but headteachers have told me grammar schools are good for disadvantaged pupils.” But he similarly says: “Regulators have made the global financial system more resilient by major regulatory reforms. Banks now have much bigger capital and liquidity buffers.” “Evidence beats anecdote in politics as well as economics” May 26.

That is also pure anecdote. Giles can really have no real evidence for what he is opining. During the last years banks might very well have accumulated excessive exposures to what ex ante is perceived as very safe, but that equally could ex post turn out to be very risky. Building up that kind of dangerous exposures, against the least required capital, is precisely what regulators’ risk weighted capital requirements for banks do.

“Labour governments favoured ‘light touch’ regulation of the financial sector” “Light-touch? Nonsense! Fake-fact! Sir, I ask, would you call distorting the vital allocation of bank credit to the real economy to be “light touch” regulation?

@PerKurowski