Mifid-Mifir: Frankendodd on Angel Dust?
I have only had time to skim press coverage of the new Mifid & Mifir promulgated by the European Commission, but on my initial read, that appears to be a fair description. All of the bad ingredients of Frankendodd made worse, with some special Euro accents of a decidedly dirigiste flavor. The same deep suspicion of markets, the same cartoonish view of why market structures have evolved as they have, the same conceit of knowledge and control, the same breezy disregard for unintended consequences.
Sorcerer’s apprentices run amok, again. Led by a French apprentice no less.
After July 21, 2010, who woulda thunk that regulatory arbitrage would have thrown business in the US’s direction? If Mifid and Mifir go through anything like what Barnier et al propose, that could well happen.
Of course, this deep suspicion of markets, cartoonish view of why market structures have evolved as they have, conceit of knowledge and control, and breezy disregard for unintended consequences, will prolong and deepen the present recession, just as FDR’s attacks against “malefactors of great wealth” contributed to the regime uncertainty that retarded recovery in the Great Depression.
The duration of the Great Depression had nothing to do with the fact that the US GNP had declined from $103.6 billion to $56.4 billion between 1929 and 1933. Nothing at all.
Comment by a — October 21, 2011 @ 6:15 pm
This is the end – Western Civilization has run out of creative juices. The Eurotards cannot even figure out a new way to screw up – what happened to continent that gave us Hitler Mussolini, Stalin, Laval, Franco, Quisling, etc.?
Comment by Sotos — October 22, 2011 @ 6:27 pm