The safest route for UK might be to take to the seas in a leaky boat, abandoning a safe haven that is becoming dangerously overpopulated.
Sir, Martin Wolf writes: “A significant generational divide has opened up. Those aged 22-39 experienced a 10 per cent fall in real earnings between 2007 and 2017. They were also particularly hard hit by the jump in average house prices from 3.6 times annual average earnings 20 years ago to 7.6 times today. Not surprisingly, the proportion of 25-34 year olds taking out a mortgage has fallen sharply, from 53 to 35 per cent.” “A bruising Brexit could shipwreck the British economy” November 17.
Sir, I would argue that has a lot to do with the fact that banks are allowed to leverage much more their equity when financing “safe” home purchases than when for instance financing job creation by means of loans to “risky” SMEs and entrepreneurs.
Because that means banks can earn much higher expected risk adjusted returns on their equity when financing home purchases than when instance financing job creation by means of loans to SMEs and entrepreneurs… and so they do finance much more home purchases than risky job creations.
But Martin Wolf does not think so. He thinks bankers should do what is right, no matter the incentives. I think that is a bit naïve of him.
The way I see it, one of these days all the young living in the basements will tell their parents. “We’ve been cheated. You move down and we move upstairs.”
And it will be hard to argue against that. My generation has surely not lived up to its part of that intergenerational holy social contract Edmund Burke wrote about.
Wolf ends with “The UK has embarked on a risky voyage in a leaky boat. Beware a shipwreck”. No! I would instead hold that its bank regulators made it overstay in a supposedly safe harbor that is therefor rapidly and dangerously becoming overcrowded.
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for”, John A Shedd.
Sir, I have no idea if Martin Wolf has kids but, if he had, would his kids have grown stronger if he had rewarded them profusely for staying away from what they believe is risky? I don’t think so.
@PerKurowski
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