useful and timely caveat from the comptroller of the currency November 30, 2016
Posted by Bradley in : financial regulation , add a commentThomas Curry, in a speech at The Clearing House Annual Conference:
I am glad that our banks and the banking system are stronger today, but now is not the time to let our guard down. Those who have been in this business for more than one cycle know a downturn will come. Effective regulation and supervision will help ensure that the trough will not be so deep or so wide. Those who forget or choose to ignore the lessons of the last crisis do so at their own peril and increase the risk to all of us.
the play that goes wrong November 15, 2016
Posted by Bradley in : culture , add a commentNot the election. But The Play that Goes Wrong is to transfer to Broadway. I saw it this summer (while feeling anxious about the aftermath of the Brexit vote (I am still anxious)). The play is not deep, but it is very funny. The sort of antidote some of us might need right now.
parliament talks brexit, rule of law, freedom of the press, and we’re none the wiser November 7, 2016
Posted by Bradley in : brexit , add a commentAmong the many failures of transparency in this whole situation, today’s discussion of last week’s court decision, and the press reaction, is the one about not wanting to disclose to Parliament anything about the Government’s negotiating position that might prevent the UK from getting the best possible deal for the UK.
This sort of “trust us, we will do the best for you (and transparency would stop us doing that)” talk contrasts with the EU’s disclosure of documents relating to TTIP negotiations. Transparency isn’t inevitably seen as inconsistent with negotiation – at least when you recognise that you need to bring citizens on board with the results of the negotiation.
These parliamentary debates seem to be based on a rather different idea – that when the Government tells the people that it has negotiated the terms of a Brexit that are the best terms possible, or that the failure to reach agreement on such terms means that there will be a Brexit with no agreement on terms at all, that the citizens should just accept it. After all, the point is to do what a majority of the voters said they wanted, which is Brexit. It is politically impossible, seemingly to notice the Parliamentary failure to think through the details in the referendum legislation, or the massive fraud that was perpetrated on the citizens who voted.
The range of theoretically possible terms is vast – and to describe them all as Brexit makes no sense.
Moreover, it looks increasingly likely (and this would be entirely rational) that the only terms on offer will be those that offer the worst deal for the UK. The other Member States have every incentive to try to pick off every single part of UK economic activity they can. If they did not insist on the worst possible terms for the AUK they would be failing in their duties to their own citizens, and failing in their responsibilities to each other to do what is necessary to hold the European project together.
brexit rule of law issues November 6, 2016
Posted by Bradley in : brexit , add a commentThursday’s judgment in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the EU is beautiful, a model of a judicial opinion, elegant and parsimonious, and also very careful not to trespass on political decision-making. It’s a judgment all law students in the UK should be required to read. But just as Mark Carney’s good faith implementation of his statutory mandate for financial stability has been critiqued as impinging on politics, so this good faith exercise of legal judgment has been impugned by people who should know better. And the Justice Minister stands by. How can a recognition of the fundamental principle of the British Constitution that sovereignty belongs to the Queen in Parliament be seen as anything other than pro-democracy? Meanwhile it looks as though the EU Commission is looking onto another (possible?) failure of the UK Government to respect the law – this time with respect to EU state aids rules and whatever promises have been made to Nissan. And surely this will attract just as much unthinking hostility as the other developments. And to think that the UK celebrated the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta last year.