A letter in Washington Post: Factors in the Financial Storm

Factors in the Financial Storm

David Ignatius, in his Sept. 2 op-ed, "The Real Causes of the Financial Storm" failed to mention the two lead actors in the financial mess we find ourselves in: the credit rating agencies, whose AAA ratings turned what should have remained a local problem involving some subprime lenders into a global financial storm; and, of course, the bank regulators who against all wisdom enabled the credit rating agencies to foist what they consider to be only their First Amendment-enabled opinions upon the markets.

In May 2003, as one of the 24 executive directors of the World Bank, and probably only because of that, I was invited to make some comments during a workshop arranged by the World Bank for bank regulators on assessing, managing and supervising financial risk. Along with offering some suggestions, I told the regulators, "I simply cannot understand how a world that preaches the value of the invisible hand of millions of market agents can then go out and delegate so much regulatory power to a limited number of human and very fallible credit rating agencies. This sure must be setting us up for the mother of all systemic errors."

I never got invited to comment again.

PS. January 2003 a letter on this problem in the Financial Times

Published in the Washington Post.

Here other of my letters in the Washington Post on this issue:
June 20, 2008: An Aspect of the Bubble
December 27, 2009: Another 'worst': Faulty bank regulation

January 6, 2012: Handcuffed by a triple-A rating
May 1, 2013: An American approach to banking
December 23, 2014: Let the market rule on risky trades
November 11, 2015: Reverse-mortgaging the future
August 9, 2016: Banks, regulators and risk
April 16, 2017: When banks play it too safe 

July 11, 2018: There is another tariff war that is being dangerously ignored. 

December 30, 2018: Affordable homes or investment assets?