Bits of wisdom from the FT

On the new EU banking arrangement, here is Wolfgang Münchau:

If you study the details of what was agreed last week, the substance evaporates. The common supervisory structure will affect only about 100 to 150 banks out of a total of 6,000 – those with assets of more than €30bn. The ECB can usurp supervisory powers from national regulators but the rules of engagement are not clear. Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, said when he left the meeting that the ECB would need to make a well-argued case. But it is not clear how this would work in practice.

If you can get through the link there is much more, all devastating.  There is of course no banking union whatsoever and no set of mutual guarantees.  And this:

What happened was that the OMT has killed any appetite for a fiscal union, and has turned the banking union into a phantom.

The effect of the OMT will be negative in the long run because it has provided policy makers with a false sense of security. That was not the intention but the effect.

Let’s not leave Larry Summers out of the mix:

…the richest taxpayers actually make relatively little use of deductions and credits.

It is an excellent piece on tax reform.

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