Reflections on Terracotta Warriors, credit ratings, and capital requirements for banks

I read in Latin American Herald Tribune of January 14, 2017: “A Chinese state-run newspaper reported that armed with clubs authorities destroyed a museum with 40 fake Terracotta Warriors that tricked numerous tourists and prompted some complaints”

Oh I can already hear it! “Tom, you see, I told you those terracotta soldier boys they took us to see seemed fake. Why did you not listen to me? Why did we have to show those photos to Nancy and George? Do you think we could now sue the Chinese tourism authorities for those terra-whatever being fakes, or at least for disclosing those as fakes after the fact?

My head started to spin too. Some years ago I bought some small Terracotta Warriors in China. Because of their size and pricing, I always thought these to be absolute fakes. No problema! But are these now exposed to being crushed by some Chinese regulator? Might someone over there have a copyright on these that has been infringed?

Come to think of it, do we not need some Chinese Terracotta Authenticity rating agencies? 

Perhaps, but, if those rating agency fall for the temptations to be most certainly offered to them by shady Terracotta Warrior suppliers, hey we’re talking China here, could we ask our government to sue these agencies? 

I mean like the US has done with Moody’s and S&P with respect to their worse than lousy rating processes that produced totally unworthy AAAs for some of the securities backed with mortgages to the subprime sector in the US.

But then again, if these terracotta rating agencies mislead us, would we see some of the money from the fines, or would that only go to those who, to begin with, excessively empowered the rating agencies? 

And should then regulators in China request the vendors of Terracota Warriors to hold more capital, against the risk of being sued, the faker the rating shows its product to be; somewhat like what is being done with banks and their risk weighted capital requirements?

I would not think so. I would have bought my Terracota Warriors even if rated very fake; since the price was right.

Of course, the real problem, like in the case of the AAA rated securities, would be an AAA rated Terracota Warrior, and for which partly because of that rating, billions had been paid for at an auction, if it then later proves to be fake.

Does this mean that the better a Terracota Warrior would be rated, the more capital should the suppliers hold? Yes! Precisely! That’s what fundamentally current bank regulators got wrong.

The safer an asset is ex ante perceived, decreed concocted or rated, the riskier it could be ex post. They completely ignored Voltaire’s “May God defend me from my friends, I can defend myself from my enemies”

Current bank regulation, more risk more capital - less risk less capital, is something as fake and dumb as it gets.

1. Even though the most important function of banks is to allocate credit efficiently to the real economy, let’s forget that and concentrate solely on banks becoming super safe mattresses in which we can store our savings.

So let us not worry about banks being able to leverage more their equity and the support we give them on what is perceived as safe than on what is perceived as risky; which obviously means banks will be able to earn higher expected risk adjusted returns on equity on what is perceived as safe than on what is perceived as risky; which obviously means banks will lend too much to what is perceived as safe and too little to what is perceived as risky.

2. Even though that reduces the opportunities of those coming from behind to access bank credit, and therefore basically decrees more inequality, let’s also forget about that.

3. Even though the distortion will cause banks to finance less the risky that our young need in order for them to have jobs and a workable economy, let us forget about that and go for short term safety, we baby-boomers aren’t that young, are we?

4. Even though all banking crisis have resulted from unexpected events, like natural disasters and devaluations, from criminal activity and from excessive exposures to something ex ante perceived as safe but that ex post turned out to be very risky, let us ignore that and require banks to hold more capital when holding assets perceived as risky. 

5. Even though we know that banks will do their utmost to lower their capital requirements so as to obtain higher returns on assets, let us allow the big banks to run their own risk models, as they will love us for that and make our yearly visits to Davos so much more agreeable.

6. Even though it is clear that our economies would never have developed the same had these regulations been in place before, let us ignore that, in order as regulators to feel more tranquil.

7. Even though the distortion will cause banks to finance less the risky SMEs and entrepreneurs that our young need to be financed in order for them to have jobs and a workable economy, let us forget about that and go for short term safety, we baby-boomers aren’t that young, are we?

8. Even though 0% risk weight for the Sovereign and 100% for We the People gives away that we believe government bureaucrats know better how to use bank credit than the private sector, let’s stand firm on it. We are true statists, aren’t we?

9. Even though Greece and AAA rated securities, and the ensuing stagnation, and the ensuing waste of so much stimulus has proved us so very wrong, let us ignore that, since otherwise we could lose our jobs.

10. There is probably not a clearer evidence that current bank regulators have no clue about they are doing that Basel II's risk weights. These assign 20% to the dangerous AAA to AA rated while sticking the so innocuous below BB- rated with 150%.

PS. I have tried for over a decade to get some answers from regulators to some very basic questions, unfortunately in that area the technocrats are seemingly following a strict Zero Contestability policy.