Thursday, April 29, 2010

Reruns of That 'Thirties Show? - Up and Down Wall Street Daily - R. Forsyth - Barrons.com

Reruns of That 'Thirties Show? - Up and Down Wall Street Daily - R. Forsyth - Barrons.com

Ah but, look at Basel II (and III coming).

The idea is safety by investing in sovereigns. High risk to lend to business.

And, after all, in the US and Europe, a business person is looking at a $/EUR 500 wage cost for $/EUR 100 in wages. So the deck is already stacked against socialist vs. free market (read: Chinese) labor.

Thus, banks are encouraged to support socialist, redistributionist government largesse, while lending to business is fraught with both regulatory and economic risk (i.e. reserve accounting and in the US, perhaps seizure and closure of the bank).

The populists and socialists don't imagine they are gutting their economies because all they can think of is immediate and promised benefits.

Randy is right on - eventually the bill has to be paid for lending to the improvident who have no hope (or real desire) to repay.

Things still look like 1928 to politicians in most countries. But, is it so?

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