1. catdynamics
  2. Quis custodiet

Quis custodiet

By catdynamics on February 23, 2009.

ipsos custodes?

The guardians of the finances, to be specific.

I infer, reading on the Net, that US Treasury Secretary Geithner has not got round to nominating under and assistant secretaries for the various Treasury Offices.

So, they are either vacant, or staffed by holdovers from the previous administration.
Awkward that.

They might want to do something about that, rather fast.

I hear, from a friend of a friend who has a cousin whose brother-in-law knows this girl who...
anyway, apparently US Treasury officials had it suggested to them that too much of the modern banking system and its hellish innovations lay outside regulation and monitoring, and this ought to be changed, maybe with some international co-ordination (and they can start with Iceland, please).
The US officials response, apparently, was to note that banking is the most regulated of all industries, and that this could not, possibly, be the problem.

Right.
Talk about completely missing the point.
Must be the blinkers keeping them on the true straight road.
I think we have a problem.

Someone, please, tell me I am wrong.

PS: these are the three reputedly on deck for Treasury assistants

Annette Nazareth - deputy sec, resp. for regulation

Lee Sachs - domestic

Caroline Atkinson - international - hm, ex WaPo reporter, written some interesting CFR Op-Eds

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The US officials response, apparently, was to note that banking is the most regulated of all industries, and that this could not, possibly, be the problem.

The first part of that statement might technically be true, but the second part does not follow. We know that the Bush administration tried very hard not to enforce regulations, and regulations are worthless if not enforced.

Someone, please, tell me I am wrong.

"It's only a flesh wound."

By Eric Lund (not verified) on 24 Feb 2009 #permalink

well, also much of the innovative structures like CDSs and CDOs moved outside the regulatorary framework, and many of the secondary institutions like hedge funds and investment bank subdivisions were unregulated

The US officials response, apparently, was to note that banking is the most regulated of all industries, and that this could not, possibly, be the problem.

The problem with this is the very notion that banking is an "industry". It isn't. It's a fiction created by governments that issue fiat curreny.