Tag: credit crunch
Narrow Banking
The Reform of Banking Regulation
We should spend less time trying to ensure that our regulators can regulate financial behemoths with turnovers bigger than the...
‘Tailgating’ in financial markets puts us all at risk
In the unlikely event that the G20 leaders can spare a few moments between photo opportunities and ritual denunciation of greedy bankers, they might give urgent attention to the question of how to extricate themselves from the underwriting of failed banks.
Undone, but still not understood
One lesson of recent events is that there seem to be no limits to the greed of the greedy. But perhaps the explanation is simply the one Madoff gave to the judge who sentenced him: “I made a mistake.”
In magic or in markets, it is never rational to be...
Economists interpet rationality as consistency. But is this what is ordinarily meant by rationality - and is consistency really possible or desirable in a complex world?
Banks brought down by new Peter Principle
It is particularly easy for those who work in financial institutions to make the mistake of believing that their success is the result of exceptional skill rather than good fortune. Until vanity is vanquished, I anticipate that diversification to the level of incompetence will continue to be a powerful element in business behaviour.
George Eliot wrote the book on moral hazard
Do not waste any time on sermons and the prohibition. Even if the Good Lord himself were to deliver the Sermon on the Mount, He would be ignored. Hardened gamblers only give up when they have made the resolution to quit themselves.
What a carve up – Book review
If you want to understand how the City came to play such a central role in British economic and political life, why a crash was inevitable, and why the crisis is being resolved on terms which give so much and ask so little of the financial sector, this is the most important thing you need to understand: the influence of investment banks on modern politics and policy.
Too big to fail? Wall Street, we have a problem
We should learn lessons from the Apollo programme and the people who design our television sets. Modular constructions are more robust.
Our banks are beyond the control of mere mortals
Great and enduringly successful organisations are not stages on which geniuses can strut. They are structures that make the most of the ordinary talents of ordinary people.
Britain has sunk itself deep into a fiscal black hole
In practice, the only successful method of reducing public spending as a share of GDP has been to impose tight curbs while the economy is growing rapidly. We shall be lucky if such an opportunity appears.
