August 20, 2014

It is bank regulators who cuddle up to politicians and governments.

Sir, John Plender begins his “Eurozone debt problems in need of a fresh start” of August 20 with “Rarely can bond markets have taken politicians so comprehensively off the hook.”

What? Please? If there is anyone taken politicians so comprehensively off the hook – and delivering “the decline in government bond yields” which has “reduced the cost of servicing excessive public sector debt”, that is the bank regulators who decided banks had to hold much less capital (equity) when lending to governments than when lending to the “oh so risky” citizens.

And quite recently one of you in FT argued in an email to me, that it should be so since “the risk in lending to a government able to print its own money (like the UK) IS CLOSE TO ZERO” meaning with that we should trust the infallible politicians because the controlled the printing machine. Well no way Jose!