Friday, April 20, 2012

Repealing "Resolution Authority"

If Mark Thoma says it's crazy, it must be crazy...  House Republicans voting to repeal "resolution authority", which is what would give the government authority to take over a (large) shadow bank.  Without it, you either let the bank fail or you bail it out.  Republicans calling out for preventing moral hazard, but you can't let a bank just fail.  I bet if they a good deal of their savings in banks, they wouldn't want a bank to fail and eat up their money.  I empathize with not giving banks an out if they stink up the joint, but allowing a bank to fail is not a good idea, nor do I think it's a credible threat.  Bailing out, as pointed out in the article, allows the generous severance packages.  I'm not suggesting that the government does a significantly better job than banks do, but governments don't have perverse incentives like bank managers do - the government doesn't necessarily care about profits.

Is repealing resolution authority just a way to insure that crappy bank managers still get mad money, rather than getting kicked out?

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