Reply: There is n othing extreme in my thinking, as any reader of this site will know. Stop the myth making.

No. And some government ministers, regulators and financiers should be strung up from the nearest lamp post.

As if they *could*.

Regulatory capture is inexorable.

Look at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The Office of Housing Enterprise Oversight existed specifically and only to regulate those two (off-the-books) Government entities. The Office has an annual budget of about 66,000,000 dollars. I tried to find out how many staff, but failed; from their organisation chart and budget, I’m thinking some hundreds.

Do any good? not a bit. Not to even mention the support in Congress and the House for increasing the scope and size of Frannies activities. In 2006, for example, there was a push to get Frannie to handle mortgages up to 735,000 dollars – e.g. to compete in the entire market, while being able to out-compete every private lender because of their implicit State guarantee – in others words, a State run mortgage market (which to a large extent is what the Americans had already at that point anyway).

This entire CDO mess occurred because of Frannie, because the Americans back in about 1930 went for Big Government and started meddling in the mortgage market.

When a problem takes 75 years to mature, when it finally pops, it’s big. But you know, you *get what you get*, and this is what you get for manipulating the market.

Regulate? regulate when you’re *doing the wrong thing in the first place?* great! that’ll help!

> I don’t think that is the right response.

It’s more of the same, where “same” means Government following its natural course, to centralize and regulate.

It’s not the case that regulation does not work; it’s the case that regulation *cannot* work.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aANXHOD12Q2A&refer=news

“South Sea Bubble Survivor Says Dismantle RBS Along With Lloyds”

Reply: Not so, I will edit it in due course, but anyone who makes personal attacks on named individuals gets protected by editing. Yours need a bit of editing. Please make trenchant criticisms of institutions without personalising them, if you want fast posting

How long will it take before the banks are broken up and the deposit side wrenched from the hands of the gamblers?

The whole banking profit system is based on growing the money supply or on zero sum games. The Govt should control money supply and the banks should earn profits on real investments.

Until we stop pretending then salaries will remain high for doing nothing.

Problem seems to me there are many who think they are experts and will not admit that they are not, think the name Brown & Co springs to mind.

Oh by the way, many thanks for having a go at Wokingham Council who wanted to spend £3,000 on a Civic reception for themselves. Your intervention I understand made them change their mind.

Good to see a Politician who takes action to support his ideals of stopping wasteful expenditure.