February 06, 2015

Sir FT, what would European public borrowing cost be without bank regulations which discriminate in favor of such borrowings?

Sir, I refer to Ralph Atkins "Greece’s clash with its creditors is part of a global challenge" February 6. It states “More controversial would be further sovereign debt restructurings…This debate has so far largely escaped markets’ notice as a result of QE — most lately by the European Central Bank — which has suppressed private and public sector borrowing costs.”

Yes, QEs have artificially suppressed borrowing costs, meaning also the returns to investors. But what really has escaped the debate, is on how much the borrowing costs of sovereigns all around the world, are being suppressed by those risk-weighted equity requirements for banks imposed by the Basel Accord and that so much favor the public sector borrowings?

Tell me Sir FT: what would the public sector borrowing cost be for the European sovereigns, if banks needed to hold as much equity against their loans than what they are required to hold when lending to small European businesses or entrepreneurs?

November 2004, in a letter you published I asked: “How many Basel propositions it will take before they start realizing the damage they are doing by favoring so much bank lending to the public sector. In some developing countries, access to credit for the private sector is all but gone, and the banks are up to the hilt in public credits.”

Sir, why have you for more than a decade not even tried to advance an answer to that concern?

Sir FT, don’t you know that those who do not criticize what’s dumb, do de-facto confess to be coward or dumb themselves?