do not trust bankers

Bankers have started moaning again. At the Istanbul conference of the International Monetary Fund, there has been a chorus of virtually orchestrated complaints that regulators’ demands for more bank capital could strangle the nascent economic recovery. Josef Ackermann at Deutsche Bank and Stuart Gulliver at HSBC have said so publicly, and many others have privately. They fear banks will have to cut back on lending to reach the new suggested Core Tier 1 capital ratios of 8% or even 10%, especiall...