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Banks are designed to fail — and they do

This is a system that is essential to the functioning of the market economy but doesn’t operate by its rules

Banks fail. When they do, those who stand to lose scream for a state rescue. If the threatened costs are big enough, they will succeed. This is how, crisis by crisis, we have created a banking sector that is in theory private, but in practice a ward of the state. The latter in turn attempts to curb the desire of shareholders and management to exploit the safety nets they enjoy. The result is a system that is essential to the functioning of the market economy but does not operate in accordance with its rules. This is a mess.

Money is the stuff one must have if one is to buy the things one needs. This is true for households and businesses, which need to pay suppliers and workers. That is why bank failures are calamities. But banks are not designed to be secure. While their deposit liabilities are supposed to be perfectly safe and liquid, their assets are subject to maturity, credit, interest rate and liquidity risks. They are fair weather institutions. In bad times, they fail, as depositors run for the door.

Over time, state institutions have responded to the inability of banks to provide the safe money their depositors expect. In the 19th century central banks became lenders of last resort, though supposedly at a penalty rate. In the early 20th, governments guaranteed smaller deposits. Then, in the financial crisis of 2007-09, they in effect put their entire balance sheets behind the banks. The banking system as a whole became, unambiguously, a part of the state. In return, capital requirements were raised, liquidity rules were tightened and stress tests were introduced. All then would be well. Or not.

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马丁•沃尔夫

马丁•沃尔夫(Martin Wolf) 是英国《金融时报》副主编及首席manbetx20客户端下载 评论员。为嘉奖他对财经新闻作出的杰出贡献,沃尔夫于2000年荣获大英帝国勋爵位勋章(CBE)。他是牛津大学纳菲尔德学院客座研究员,并被授予剑桥大学圣体学院和牛津manbetx20客户端下载 政策研究院(Oxonia)院士,同时也是诺丁汉大学特约教授。自1999年和2006年以来,他分别担任达沃斯(Davos)每年一度“世界manbetx20客户端下载 论坛”的特邀评委成员和国际传媒委员会的成员。2006年7月他荣获诺丁汉大学文学博士;在同年12月他又荣获伦敦政治manbetx20客户端下载 学院科学(manbetx20客户端下载 )博士荣誉教授的称号。

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