This week Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, declared that the capital requirements in last year’s Basel III deal must be raised for large banks. Three days earlier Daniel Tarullo, Federal Reserve Governor, went further, suggesting as much as a doubling of the Basel ratios for the very biggest banks. Meanwhile Michel Barnier, European Union financial services commissioner, takes the opposite position: “We can’t rush forward,” he says. The radical reformers are lining up against gradualists. On any serious reading of the evidence, the radicals are right.
美国财政部长蒂姆•盖特纳(Tim Geithner)本周宣布，去年巴塞尔协议III(Basel III)对大银行提出的资本要求必须进一步提高。在那之前三天，美联储(FED)理事丹尼尔•塔鲁洛(Daniel Tarullo)甚至更进一步，建议对于那些特别大的银行，资本要求应该提高到巴塞尔比率的两倍。同时，欧盟(European Union)金融服务专员米歇尔•巴尼耶(Michel Barnier)持相反意见。他表示：“我们不能操之过急。”激进改革派正联合起来，对抗渐进派。只要认真研究一下各种证据，你就会发现：激进派是对的。