Bank regulators, mixed and served us their Basel Accord cocktail... and since, they tell us all to sing: “Don't worry, be happy.”

The Basel I Accord (28 pages) was published in July 1988 by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision:

Risk weighted bank capital requirements with decreed weights:

0% Sovereigns, 50% residential mortgages and 100% private sector.

The film Cocktail in July 1988, released "Don't Worry Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin.

Here's a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note

Don't worry, be happy

Basel II (239 pages) was published in June 2004.

Decreed risk weights: AAA to AA rated 20% - Below BB- rated 150%

The global financial crisis, 2008-09, caused by mortgage backed securities MBS ensued. 

The land-lord say your rent is late

He may have to litigate

Don't worry, be happy

Basel III: A global regulatory framework for more resilient banks and banking systems - revised version June 2011.

In every life we have some trouble

But when you worry, you make it double

Don't worry, be happy.

Basel III, July 2024, often retitled as an “Endgame” (for the times being only 1,910 pages), is still being worked on.

But on the margin, where it most counts when banks decide in what to invest, the risk weighted bank capital equity requirements, they still reign supreme.

And many nations and many of its citizens, having to take on new debt only to service the debt they already owe, have turned into zombies. What a hangover headache that cocktail has given us! BUT they still tell us:

Don't worry, it will soon pass

Whatever it is

Don't worry, be happy