February 27, 2015

Negative yields give crystal clear evidence of QEs not working, as a result of dumb bank regulations

Sir, I refer to Elaine Moore’s “QE hopes draw investors to negative yields” February 27.

Is that not proof enough of what is wrong? If QEs worked it would cause money to be shipped out to more productive areas of the economy… not to markets accepting getting a voluntarily minimum haircut by taking refuge in the most unproductive “safe” haven of them all, that of sovereign debts.

What’s wrong? What I have been telling you for years, what I have even written in a letter you published in 2004…“How many Basel propositions will it take before they start realizing the damage they are doing by favoring so much bank lending to the public sector? In some developing countries, access to credit for the private sector is all but gone, and the banks are up to the hilt in public credits.”

Do you think there would be negative rates if small businesses and entrepreneurs had fair access to bank credit and could be producing all that which could tempt buyers?

But you all at FT prefer to ignore that. Unless you are devout communists, I cannot understand why.