It has always astonished me that the economy could supposedly be regulated by manipulating this single variable : interest rates. If this were true, then the whole business ought to be simple enough to be understood by a curious if ignorant bystander such as myself.

Clearly it's more complicated than that. How much more complicated? Not all that much, it appears...

So, if banks were rational actors, then they wouldn't take ill-considered risks with their money (and other peoples').

But they don't behave like rational actors; they behave like naughty children. It sees we must love them very much; because we (taxpayers; sovereign citizens, as represented by our governments) keep bailing them out when they get into trouble. We could cut them loose without a penny, in consequence of their past arrogance and ingratitude; but no, we pay their debts and give them pocket money.

It's time to fix the rules, to keep them on a short leash. We must acknowledge that they will continue to do foolish, dangerous things if left to their own devices. We must regulate them, to save them from themselves.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}