Is the Basel Committee to bank regulations, a bit like Anthony Fauci was to Covid-19?

Basel’s risk weighted bank capital/equity requirements, sort of incentivized banks to wear masks and keep more distance when lending to risky small businesses, than when holding “safe” public debts.

And similarly to how Covid-19 deaths statistics related to age were ignored, Basel regulations ignore that all major financial crises resulted from the buildup of excessive exposures to what was perceived, decreed or concocted as very safe.

 

Both will cause the younger to bear higher costs. Covid-19 led to e.g., closures of schools, and Basel incentivized more the refinancing of the “safer” present, over the financing of the riskier future.

As to why I feel entitled to ask the question, in both cases I’ve found reasons to refer to that intergenerational holy bond that Edmund Burke wrote about.

In both cases the Washington Post published my opinion on that:

 

November 2015: Reverse-mortgaging the future.

October 2020: Debating herd immunity.