What if Greece defaults on its soverign debt? A while back, the story was this: default would trigger a ‘credit event’, which would in turn activate a complex web of insurance agreements, leading to a Lehmans-style meltdown of the European banking system. Thus everything must be done to stop Greece from defaulting. Except that Greece already has […]
For all the caveats, the risk of financial meltdown can’t be ignored. Indeed, we need ask ourselves why events like the collapse of Lehman Brothers caused such chaos and what can be done to prevent future events from triggering system-wide panic. Andrew Haldane, of the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Committee, sets out some of […]
Is financial repression as bad as it sounds? The best answer to that is: no, but only just. Carmen Reinhart, writing for Bloomberg, provides an introduction to the concept. As the co-author of This Time Will Be Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, she's a superbly qualified guide, because no one – with the possible exception of Mr Micawber – has done […]
Luckily, we in the Anglosphere don’t have to put up with the kind of rampant bureaucracy that strangles freedom in Greece and China, right? David Brooks invites his American audience to think again: “The U.S. does not have a significantly smaller welfare state than the European nations. We’re just better at hiding it. The Europeans provide […]
So, who to blame for the curse of red tape? Politicians and bureaucrats are the obvious targets, but let’s not forget the lobbyists. By and large, corporate interests love regulation – the more complicated the better. Not only is the regulatory thicket shot through with loopholes for those in the know, it also acts as a barrier […]