New rules for Nations in Hock

~ Arch of Triumphal Smugness ~

Rather good edition of the FT's Outside Edge, finding Alan Beattie en forme.

1. Too big to fail

   Any country whose bankruptcy is likely to take down its neighbours is to be broken up.

2. The Volcker rule

   No country is allowed to do both financial services and manufacturing.

3. Limits on unsecured borrowing

   All countries are to post collateral against issuing sovereign debt. Hence the UK (or, actually, either the newly created Tower Hamlets Anarcho-Syndicalist Collective or the Queen’s Own Oligarchic Cabal of the City of London) has to take the crown jewels from the Tower of London and deposit them in Pimco’s vaults before being allowed to issue gilts.

4. The global bank levy

   The International Monetary Fund to tax governments to fund their future bail-outs, except for goody-goody Canada, given dispensation to use the money to build an Arch of Triumphal Smugness in Toronto.