August 19, 2013

Yes, bad domestic credit regulations did the eurozone in

Sir, Martin Sandbu writes “the crisis in many euro countries has more to do with bad domestic credit regulations than with the capital imbalances between them… The bright side of this is that the euro is not as flawed as all that”, “Europe needs new fables as Dutch and Portuguese go off-script” August 19.

And he is absolutely correct because that is precisely what has been my thesis for many years now as you know. More than a year ago, when Sandbu was blaming the “crazy capital flows” I sent you, and him, a letter titled “Don´t kill the eurozone dream just because bank regulators failed” and with which I also included a copy of my earlier “Who did the eurozone in?” At that time though, Sandbu only accepted that “lax capital requirements” were just “a bit of the culprit.

And as recently as in June this year, I repeated to Sandbu the same argument in a letter titled “Europe, I am sorry, as long as credit cannot flow freely, you will not get out of the hole.”

PS. By the way, are you not supposed to reference who have earlier made to you the arguments you are making? Or are you only morally obliged to do so, when it relates to some PhD or to some of your inner circle. I mean, Martin Sandbu, the author of "Just Business: Arguments in Business Ethics" would appear as someone knowledgeable about these sort of issues.