To celebrate the second anniversary of the fall of Lehman, the mountain of Basel has laboured mightily and brought forth a mouse. Needless to say, the banking industry will insist the mouse is a tiger about to gobble up the world economy. Such special pleading – of which this pampered industry is a master – should be ignored: withdrawing incentives for reckless behaviour is not a cost to society; it is costly to the beneficiaries. The latter must not be confused with the former. The world needs a smaller and safer banking industry. The defect of the new rules is that they will fail to deliver this.
為慶祝雷曼(Lehman)破產兩周年，巴塞爾(Basel)這座大山竭盡全力地分娩了一只老鼠。不消說，銀行業將堅稱，這不是一只老鼠，而是一只將吞噬全球經濟的猛虎。對于被慣壞了的銀行業所擅長的這種詭辯，我們不應理睬：撤銷對魯莽行為的激勵不會讓社會付出代價；付出代價的是受益者。兩者不應混淆。全球需要一個規模更小、更安全的銀行業。巴塞爾新規定的缺憾在于，它將無法實現這一目標。