Jules Muis opent academisch jaar Nyenrode
Ter gelegenheid van de opening van het academische jaar op Nyenrode sprak Jules Muis, oud-controller van de Wereldbank en weblogger op deze site, vandaag een speech uit over de achtergronden en de lessen van de financiële crisis. En hij gaf zijn gehoor alvast wat huiswerk mee voor het komende jaar.
This may also be the right moment to hand out your homework for this academic year: To answer the question "And where was academia in the run up to this crisis? And what will academia do different in making a tangible difference to prevent a next one from happening?".
Academia is one of the cornerstones, an informal gatekeeper, in the fabric of the financial markets equation, as a voice, as an educator, as a toolkit designer. Its independent views and instrumental contributions are too important not be heard before the next systemic shoe drops.
Muis betoogde in zijn rede, getiteld 'Financial Crises: Predestined? Predictable? Inevitable? Preventable?', dat de huidige crisis niet onvermijdelijk en onvoorspelbaar was, zoals sommigen willen doen geloven.
We are witnessing a man-made crisis in which the men who allowed it all to happen - dysfunctional financial gatekeepers from central bankers, economists and including, yes, accountants - are not only not held to account; but are allowed to continue to create the smoke and mirrors that keep stakeholders - taxpayers now being the key ones - from seeing the real cost of capital, their cost, their capital, of the financial systems bail out.
Over de maatregelen die op dit moment genomen worden om te voorkomen dat een dergelijke crisis zich weer zal voordoen:
As for the present - for most part good but not good enough - proposals circulating to fix the system, the real question to ask goes beyond premature jubilation such as "we are making progress". That is fine, and a good start, but let us ask ourselves "will we get there?". "Will it ensure the system is systemically market-dynamic safe-proof so as to guarantee at a least the orderly functioning of the markets?".
Personally I think they are major progress but I do not think they go far enough. And I would in particular suggest keeping a close eye out for the massive assault, already started, by vested interests to de-claw even the initial proposals; including by governments and the oversight agencies themselves: Intra and inter-agency turf wars are inevitable; and regulatory competitiveness/arbitrage is seen as a national economic asset!
The history of governmental reforms so far can best be pictured as a treadmill direction progress, without ever getting there. It is no doubt to be tested again.