Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Are “Those magnificent men in their flying machines” the explanation for the so failed bank regulations?

Was this what the current generation of bank regulators, like Lord Turner and Mario Draghi, watched as kids, and so that they could grow up arrogantly thinking that by deftly pulling at some risk-weights levers they could guarantee an ever bliss of adequate bank capital ratios? 

I mean there has to be some kind of explanation for the stupidity of higher capital requirements for banks when lending to “The Risky”, when it is always excessive exposures to “The Infallible” that has posed dangers to our banks.

What I do not understand then is why regulators were so lack in daring as clearly “the magnificent” were not. But that might be because there must be a tremendous difference between flying a plane in the air, and flying some banks while sitting at your desk, especially in safe Basel.


Those magnificent men in their flying machines,
they go up tiddly up up,
they go down tiddly down down.

They enchant all the ladies and steal all the scenes,
with their up tiddly up up
and their down tiddly down down.

Up, down, flying around,
looping the loop and defying the ground.

They're all frightfully keen,
those magnificent men in their flying machines.

They can fly upside with their feet in the air,
They don’t think of danger, they really don’t care.
Newton would think he had made a mistake,
To see those young men and the chances they take.

Those magnificent men in their flying machines,
they go up tiddly up up,
they go down tiddly down down.

They enchant all the ladies and steal all the scenes,
with their up tiddly up up
and their down tiddly down down.

Up, down, flying around,
looping the loop and defying the ground.

They're all frightfully keen,
those magnificent men in their flying machines.