Basel Committee and you other scheming dumb regulators, “Thanks, Great Job! Next time please keep out of our banks.”
A bank would ordinarily require lower risk premiums for the purchase of a house by someone willing to make an important down payment, and who showed sufficient income to be able to service the mortgage, than the risk premium the bank would require for riskier ventures, like that of lending to SMEs or entrepreneurs... those who though risky, could best help us to create the next generation of decent jobs.
But now, ever since regulators allowed banks to leverage more their equity with “safe” housing loans than with loans to The Risky, that meant the risk premiums offered in the market for housing loans suddenly got to be worth much more in terms of risk adjusted returns on bank equity, than those offered by The Risky.
The consequence? More loans to housing, and much less loans to SMEs and entrepreneurs than would ordinarily have been the case without this distortion.
And so now we are doomed to live unsafely in our safe houses, because of the lack of jobs we need in order to repay mortgages and utility bills.
Thanks regulators! Great Job! Next time please keep out of our banks.
Governments, your prime responsibility is to profoundly distrust your own technocrats, and to block these from dangerously meddling with our real economies.
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