“NOISE” defines me as noisy. I've got no problem with that.

Reading “Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment" by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein

Noise: “People who make judgments behave as if true value exists, regardless of whether it does. The think and act [as besserwissers] as if there were an invisible bull’s eye at which to aim, one that they and others should not miss by much”

Me: The Basel Committee’s risk weighted bank capital requirements, based on that what’s perceived as risky being more dangerous to our bank systems than what’s perceived (or decreed) as safe, is a pure and unabridged baseless judgment, held by Monday Morning Quarterbacks.

Noise: “Bias exist when most errors in a set of judgments are in the same direction”

Me: 2004, Basel II’s risk weights of 20% for what human fallible credit ratings agencies have assigned a AAA to AA rating, and 150% for assets assigned a below BB-rating, is clearly the previous judgement was set on steroids, by an ex-ante runaway risk aversion.

Noise: “Eliminating bias from a set of judgments will not eliminate all error. The errors that remain that remain when bias is removed are not shared. They are unwanted divergency of judgments, the unreliability of the measuring instrument we apply to reality. They are noise.” 

Me: So, I who for decades have been convinced of that what’s perceived (or decreed) as safe is much more dangerous to our bank system than what’s perceived as risky, seem to have been declared here, as pure unadulterated noise.

Be that so, for my grandchildren’s sake, I'll keep on being as noisy as can be.

The Basel Committee's Bank Credit Principles

Bureaucrats know better what to do with credit than entrepreneurs

Better refinancing the safer present than financing the riskier future

Residential mortgages are more important than small business loans

The more creditworthy are also much more worthy of credit

Are indeed as noisy as noise can be

PS. Would Daniel Kahneman have been awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences if Sveriges Riksbank had known how much his 2011 “Thinking, fast and slow” helps explain how stupid their risk weighted bank capital requirements are?

P.S. After titling my book “Voice and Noise” I found an article by Ingo R. Titze, Ph.D., in the Journal of Singing titled “Noise in the Voice”. It argued “A little noise, turned on at the right time, can go a long way toward enlarging the interpretive tool”. It reassured me a lot.

PS. My 2019 letter to the Financial Stability Board 

PS. Here, how my noise on bank regulations began