Homeland Security, bad bank regulations could be used as a lethal weapon of terrorism
Mark Twain is attributed having said: “A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain” and yes, we all know that bankers are characteristically risk-adverse.
What then if someone somewhere concocted a biochemical agent that made the bankers even more risk-adverse, perhaps a testosterone reducer... a de-testosteroner. Would that not be classified as an act of terrorism, even if the chemist proved there was absolutely no bad intention?
But that is what effectively bank regulators did, when they allowed banks to have much less capital (equity) when lending or investing in what was officially perceived as "absolutely safe", than the capital (equity) they were required to hold against any asset officially perceived as risky.
That allowed banks to earn higher risk-adjusted returns on equity when lending to "the infallible" than when lending to "the risky", something which introduced the mother of all distortions in how bank credit was allocated to the real economy.
That allowed banks to earn higher risk-adjusted returns on equity when lending to "the infallible" than when lending to "the risky", something which introduced the mother of all distortions in how bank credit was allocated to the real economy.
As should have been expected, the result was a crisis that destroyed the economy of the US; by dangerously overcrowding the perceived safe-havens, like triple-A rated securities and infallible sovereigns (Greece); and by causing the equally dangerous underexposure to what is perceived as being risky, like in lending to small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Honestly, is the willingness of the banks to take risks not a matter of national security for the Home Of The Brave?
Why do we so easily accept the distractionary explanation that the current crisis was caused by excessive risk-taking when so clearly all the serious losses have been in what was officially considered as the safest type of bank lending and investment?
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