Why do women run away?

[giblets]

Are you suggesting people wouldn't buy nukes if it was A) legal and B) affordable?

Well, the high cost is part of what makes them a waste of money.

[MikeH]

individuals make better use of their own money than others do on their behalf

Some do, I'm sure you would, many don't.

[KrazyHorse]

Some do, I'm sure you would, many don't.

Paternalism

[OneFootInTheGrave]

I don't know how much of the growth is because of oil and gas sale and how much is because of interest, but here's the numbers of the growth:


Year Worth 1 Increase Transmission 1 Return 3
1996 47,8
1997 113,4 137,2 % 61
1998 171,8 51,5 % 33 9,25 %
1999 222,4 29,5 % 24,5 14,5 %
2000 386,4 73,7 % 150 2,5 %
2001 613,7 58,8 % 251,5 -2,47 %
2002 609,0 −0,8 % 124,7 -4,7 %
2003 845,3 38,8 % 103,9 12,6 %
2004 1 016,4 20,2 % 138 8,9 %
2005 1 399,1 37,7 % 220,3 11,1 %
2006 1 784,0 27,5 % 288,3 7,9 %
2007 2 019,0 13,2 % 313 4,26 %
2008 2 275,0 12,7 % 384 -23,3 %
2009 2 591,32 13,9 %
2010 2 640,

1) in billion NOK
3)Increased market worth in international currency; Source: Norges Bank

well if they continue to perform like during last 15 years, we will be soon bowing down to our new Norwegian overlords, and not the Chinse

but I worry not, as Chinese and Norwegians are both commies*, so it's bound to be good, right?

*evan though I prefer Norwegian form of communism

[C0ckney]

Paternalism

QFT.

we should not protect banks from their mistakes and allow them to stand on their own two feet.

oh, wait a minute...

[KrazyHorse]

QFT.

we should not protect banks from their mistakes and allow them to stand on their own two feet.

What would ever give you the impression that i didn't agree with this?

[KrazyHorse]

I also don't see what that has to do with restricting the choices of individuals.

[C0ckney]

i thought that you would have something of a vested interest in the survival of the international banking system...

[DaShi]

Why should he worry about it? It's not threatened.

[KrazyHorse]

i thought that you would have something of a vested interest in the survival of the international banking system...

In the survival of the "system" yes. In the survival of individual names, not particularly.

A liquidity backstop to prevent runs doesn't introduce moral hazard by any reasonable definition, in my opinion.

[C0ckney]

and why is it not threatened today?

edit: x-post in response to dashi

[C0ckney]

In the survival of the "system" yes. In the survival of individual names, not particularly.

A liquidity backstop to prevent runs doesn't introduce moral hazard by any reasonable definition, in my opinion.

after the collapse of lehman bros i think it's reasonable to say that without the massive government intervention which followed, the whole system would have come crashing down.

also, wasn't the 'liquidity backstop' an admission that moral hazard no longer exists in the world of international banking, 'too big to fail' etc.

[KrazyHorse]

The whole point of commercial banking is to borrow short and lend long. Without banks to do it, somebody else would, and they would end up being the nexus of liquidity risk. Who is the one infinite source of liquidity? The central bank. Their mandate includes liquidity provisioning for a reason...

[KrazyHorse]

after the collapse of lehman bros i think it's reasonable to say that without the massive government intervention which followed, the whole system would have come crashing down.

I think it's reasonable to say it might have happened. I don't think it's reasonable to say it would have.

also, wasn't the 'liquidity backstop' an admission that moral hazard no longer exists in the world of international banking, 'too big to fail' etc.

Banks are individual actors. Moral hazard applies only to individual actors...

[Asher]

and why is it not threatened today?

edit: x-post in response to dashi

Why would it be?

It's not the investment banks struggling today. It's BoA, etc.