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FT, when will you stop lying about “a light-touch oversight of financial markets before the 2008 crash”?
Monday, June 13, 2016 14:09
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Sir, you write Brussels played no part…in the light-touch oversight of financial markets before the 2008 crash” “Pooled sovereignty has advanced national goals” June 13.
When are you going to stop advancing that notion of a light-touch oversight of financial markets?
In 1988, with the Basel Accord, Basel I, the regulators decided that for the purpose of calculating the risk weighted capital requirements for banks, the risk weight of some friendly sovereigns was zero percent, while the risk weight for supposedly equally friendly citizens, was 100 percent.
With that they started the most heavy-handed statist interventions of financial markets ever.
Banks needed no capital when lending to the infallible sovereign, but 8 percent when lending to citizens.
Banks could leverage equity infinitely when lending to the infallible sovereign, but only 12.5 to 1 when lending to the citizens, those from which the sovereign derives all its strength.
And then, with Basel II, in 2004, the regulators topped up their heavy-handedness by declaring that the risk weights for a private rated AAA to AA was 20 percent while the risk weight of a speculative and worse below BB- rated, one of those banks would never ever dream of building up excessive exposures to, was 150 percent.
And things have not changed significantly. In fact, on the margin, the intervention has become worse.
Was it a light-touch intervention that caused the 2008 crisis to result from excessive exposures to assets allowed being held, against specially little capital? Like with AAA rated securities, or with loans to sovereigns as Greece! No way José!
So FT, when are you to stop lying? It is sure way over time for it.
@PerKurowski ©
Source: http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2016/06/ft-when-will-you-stop-lying-about-light.html
