It would seem our bank regulators should be subjected to a full psychiatric evaluation before allowed to regulate.

Sir, I refer to Anjana Ahuja’s brief message on Robert Hare’s 1993 “Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us,” “Text messages: nine business books to help you through turbulent times” April 3.

Ahuja harrowingly writes: “Uncertainty is unsettling and certainty is alluring. Beware anyone who offers the latter with charisma, especially at this jittery juncture. Arm yourself against the charlatans by revisiting the work of the psychologist who pioneered the study of psychopathy. Hare’s short classic covered not only criminal psychopaths but the white-collar kind — who overstate their abilities, denigrate subordinates, have a tenuous grip on truth and seek greater power with shrinking oversight.”

I have often referred to our current bank regulators as dumb, ignorant, inept, stupid, even dangerous, but never ever as psychopaths, and so this really scares me.

But the truth is that white-collared technocrats, overstating with much hubris their abilities, have been able to exploit the “Uncertainty is unsettling and certainty is alluring”, in order to cajole so many, or even most in the world, into firmly believing that their risk weighted capital requirements for banks, based on ex ante perceived risks, with certainty combats, at no cost, that uncertainty that can cause banking crises.

Sir, I immediately ordered a copy of Robert Hare’s book, but really Anjana Ahuja’s brief message should suffice to understand the benefits of subjecting bank regulators to a full psychiatric evaluation before they are allowed to regulate. Airplane pilots must go through many psychological tests before they are allowed to pilot planes, and that even though they would cause so much less hurt and pain than what some misfit bank regulators could cause… or have caused.

PS. Oops I just discovered that I recently did recommend you a psychological assessment. I assure you that had nothing to do with psychopaths.

@PerKurowski

What mental block stops FT from understanding why the real economy is not responding stronger to so many stimuli?

Sir, you correctly write: “The capital weighting of many risky securities simply makes prop trading uneconomic. This is why banks in Europe have also reined in trading activities, even though Volcker does not apply to them.” “Drop the Volcker rule and keep what works” February 12.

Sir, If you see that, I truly do not understand how you cannot get your hands around the fact that the capital weighting of many risky borrowers, simply makes lending to SMEs and entrepreneurs uneconomic for the banks, and making it impossible for the real economy to respond sufficiently to all the stimulus offered?

From Wikipedia I get: “A mental block can be an inability to continue or complete a train of thought, as in the case of writer's block. A similar phenomenon occurs when one cannot solve a problem in mathematics which one would normally consider simple”

Wikipedia also states “one tactic that is used when people with mental blocks are learning new information, is repetition”. Sir, you know how I have tried to help you repeating my arguments way over 2.000 times, but sadly all these efforts have until now been to no avail.

Sir, strictly between you and me, don’t you think that, just in case, it would be wise to set up an appointment for you in order to have a Psychological assessment? I mean, what have you to fear? You did not come up with those crazy regulations that assign a risk weight of only 20% to the for the banking system so dangerous AAA rated, while weighting the totally innocuous below BB- rated with a whopping 150%

@PerKurowski