Project-Syndicate
WASHINGTON, DC – The devil is
always in the details. And the greatest devils of our economic age lurk
in the details of how officials regard the capital – the equity funding
– of our largest banks. Government officials have identified far too
closely with the distorted, self-interested worldview of global banking
executives. The result is great peril for the rest of us.
In this surreal world, the United Kingdom takes on disproportionate
influence, because London is still a top financial center – and because
the biggest banks in the United States and Europe have proved very
effective at playing off American and British regulators against one
another. Opinion leaders around the world look to the British for a
clever and nuanced approach to financial-sector policy. Unfortunately,
they currently look in vain.
