In words of two great Canadian singer songwriters, this is what has, and is happening, to Europe.
After the Basel Committee in 1988 decreed its risk adverse bank regulations, in words of Joni Mitchell’s Yellow Taxi, this is what has happened to Europe.
“Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Ooh, bop-bop-bop
Ooh, bop-bop-bop (na-na-na-na-na)
They took all the …. and put 'em in a …. museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
And, if also Leonard Cohen could update his You want it darker, though surely in a more poetic way, it could go something like this:
If you’re the regulator, I'm out of the game
Deciding what banks need, kids will be broken and lame
If thine is the glory, theirs must be the shame
You want it darker
You killed the flame
It's written in regulations
It's not some nonsense claim
Basel Committee told banks
Keep refinancing our safer present
Don’t finance their riskier future
And that’s what our children got
You want it darker
They killed the flame
USA and Canada beware… all this goes with you too.
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