Category Archives: Regulation

UK regulator on the future of banking: "The costs of doing business will be higher"

by Olaf Storbeck on 16/08/2012

Banking District (Photo credit: bsterling)
I recently interviewed Paul Sharma, Director of Policy at the …

Filed under Financial Crisis, Regulation

Tagged as Bank, banking crisis, banking regulation, European Economic Area, Financial services, Lehman brothers, Libor, light touch regulation, London, London Interbank Offered Rate, Northern Rock, Paul Sharma, ringfencing, Too Big to Fail

Bankers just don't get it

by Olaf Storbeck on 26/07/2011

A new paper sheds light on an amazing learning disability within the financial sector: …

Filed under Banking, Financial Crisis, Regulation

Tagged as banking, banks, Commercial bank, errors, financial crisis, Financial institution, Great Recession, Investment Banks, learning, mistakes, Ohio State University, René Stulz, risk taking, Robert Prilmeier, Rüdiger Fahlenbrach, TBTF, Tim Harford, Too Big to Fail, Wall Street

How Free Trade killed the Buffalo

by Olaf Storbeck on 13/04/2011

A bufallo from the 1870s. (Image via Wikipedia)

Never before in the history of mankind …

Filed under General Economics, Globalization, Regulation

Tagged as American Bison, Bufallo, capitalism, extinction, Federal government of the United States, Free Trade, Globalization, Leather, natural resources, public good, tragedy of the commons, United States

Why debt matters – some real empirical evidence

by Olaf Storbeck on 11/04/2011

Last week Henry Kaspar published an interesting blog post “Why debt matters” on Kantoos …

Filed under Financial Crisis, Monetary Policy, Regulation

Tagged as central banks, financial crisis, Free University of Berlin, househould debt, monetary policy, Paris School of Economics, United States

A warm welcome to Quantitative Tightening

by Olaf Storbeck on 07/04/2011

You’ll definitely have heard about Quantitative Easing (QE). This catchword stands for the unconventional …

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Filed under Financial Crisis, Globalization, Monetary Policy, Regulation

Tagged as capital controls, Central bank, China, ECB, emerging markets, Federal Reserve System, HSBC, Inflation, interest rates, monetary policy, quantitative easing, quantitative tightening, reserve requirements, Stephen King

Don’t listen to the banks' lobbyists – Basel III is way too soft

by Olaf Storbeck on 30/03/2011

Canary Wharf, London: Big banks, big risks (Photo: Dave Pape, via Wikimedia Commons)
ECB President …

Filed under Banking, Financial Crisis, Regulation

Tagged as Adair Turner Baron Turner of Ecchinswell, Bank of England, banking stability, Basel II, Basel III, crisis, economic growth, equity ratios, financial crisis, financial regulation, Jean-Claude Trichet, lobbying, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, regulation, SIFI, Tier 1 capital

$4.7bn per bank, per year – How the U.S. government subsidizes Citi, BoA et al.

by Olaf Storbeck on 18/02/2011

Peer Steinbrück, the former German finance minister, was adamant. The merger of two leading …

Filed under Banking, Financial Crisis, Regulation

Tagged as banking, Basel III, breakup, financial conglomerates, financial crisis, financial regulation, government, mergers, subsidies, Too Big to Fail

Lobbying for the crisis

by Olaf Storbeck on 31/05/2010

Prior to the crisis the financial industry spent billions of dollars on lobbying activities. Three economists with the IMF have scrutinized the consequences of these spending spree. Lobbying of the financial industry in itself was a cause of the financial crisis. The more a particular bank spent on lobbying the riskier its lending activity was. Continue reading →

Filed under Banking, Financial Crisis, Regulation

Tagged as bailout, banking, campaign contributions, financial crisis, lobbying, political connections, political economy, systemic risk

The arcane mysteries of banking regulation

by Olaf Storbeck on 19/05/2010

The debate about financial regulatory reform is at a decisive stage. While policymakers bandy plenty ideas, a new paper reveals how frighteningly little is known about how the existing rules actually work. The Basel core principles for effective banking supervision have no discernible benefits for the soundness of the financial industry of a particular country. Continue reading →

Filed under Banking, Financial Crisis, Regulation

Tagged as banking stability, Basel core principles, economics, financial crisis, financial regulation

Accident, Suicide or Negligent Homicide?

by Olaf Storbeck on 12/05/2010

Was the financial crisis just an economic act of God which could not have been prevented? This is what Alan Greenspan and other economic policy makers claim. U.S. economist Ross Levine now strongly challenges this view. Brown has conducted a meticulous autopsy of the financial system which leads to a rather unsettling conclusion. Continue reading →

Filed under Banking, Financial Crisis, Monetary Policy, Regulation

Tagged as Alan Greenspan, causes, economic policy, economics, financial crisis, mistakes, research, Ross Levine