Sunday, November 9, 2014

The poor, “the risky” and the future are subsidizing the bank borrowings of “the absolutely safe”. Now how about that?

Governments guarantees to help bank creditors if banks fail, which in all essence is a support subsidy to the banks.

And, if banks fail, and government needs to pay up, it is argued that it is the taxpayers who must pay… and we usually leave it at that. 

But, when taxpayers pay, it is actually all who pay, and that means, in relative terms, especially the poor; because the wealthy have more deposits in the banks which are saved; and because the poor would probably be the one most to benefit with the taxes that could be collected, if the support subsidy was not needed to be paid.

But regulators also allow banks to hold less equity when lending to those from a credit point of view perceived as absolutely safe, than when lending to those perceived as risky; and that signifies that the support subsidy is effectively bigger for those perceived as absolutely safe than for those perceived as risky.

Finally, what has already made it, namely the history, has a lot more possibilities of being perceived as absolutely safe, than what needs an opportunity to be, namely the future.

All that translates into that the poor, those perceived as "risky" and the future, are subsidizing the bank borrowings of the “absolutely safe”… now how about that? And, if that is not a cruel way of fostering inequality, what is?