The litmus test any aspiring central banker or bank regulator should have to pass

Fact: Banks are allowed to leverage more with assets considered safe, like loans to sovereigns, the AAArisktocracy and mortgages, than with assets considered risky, like loans to SMEs and entrepreneurs.

So ask the candidates:

Does that mean “the safe” have even more and easier access to bank credit than usual; and “the risky” have even less and on more expensive terms access to bank credit than usual?

If the answer is no, disqualify the candidate.

If the answer is yes, then ask: 

Do you think that might dangerously distort the allocation of bank credit to the real economy? Or impede QE stimulus flow to where it could be most productive?

If the answer is no, disqualify the candidate.

If the answer is yes, then ask: 

In terms of what can pose the greatest risk to the bank system, would you agree with Basel II’s risk weights of 20% for what is rated AAA to AA and 150% for what is rated below BB-?

If the answer is yes, disqualify the candidate.

If the answer is no, then ask: 

Do you agree with a 0% risk weighting of sovereigns?

If the answer is yes, the candidate should be classified as an incurable statist, not independent at all, and accordingly dismissed.

If the answer is no, then one could proceed applying any other criteria considered relevant.

As a relevant criteria, the way the world looks, being a lucky person seems a quite valid one.

PS. How many of those currently in central banks, or in the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision, or in the Financial Stability Board would pass this test?

@PerKurowski

Before blaming any regulatory capture on bankers, look first to the parents of central bankers and regulators.

That is because the regulatory capture could very well begin with some overly sissy parents, whose risk-adverseness causes the risk aversion in their kids which makes them natural candidates to be central bankers and regulators.

And then their grown-up equally scared kids, prohibit banks from engaging in natural market risk-taking, like lending to entrepreneurs and start-ups. 

And that risk-adverseness takes the strength out of the real economy, and, at the end, only causes banks to take truly dangerously excessive risks on what regulators, with amazing hubris, consider themselves to be capable to deem as “absolutely safe”… like the infallible sovereigns (Greece), the AAAristocracy (securities collateralized with mortgages to the subprime sector) or real estate (Spain).