BMO Professor vs. Bank Regulation
Last week, the C. D. Howe Institute was out with an op-ed contending that Canadian household debt is not worth worrying too much about: “There does not seem to be a strong case for restrictive regulation of consumer credit products, such as tight caps on interest rates.â€
The C. D. Howe Institute arguing for looser financial regulation is nothing new. On the eve of the global financial crisis, it released a paper presenting more securitization as the antidote to financial risk.
But Andrew Hepburn draws my attention to the byline under last week’s op-ed: “Jim MacGee is a Bank of Montreal Professor and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Western Ontario.â€
So, the Bank of Montreal Professor does not want stronger consumer-credit regulations applied to banks. What’s next? The Enbridge Professor endorsing the Northern Gateway pipeline?
Nice catch. I have to get out of the university game. It is so atrociously bought and paid for. Although I wonder if this direct funding model will have the same pay-off when such titles make it transparently clear who is buying the research.
You should see paper co-author Thorsten V. Koeppl’s frustratingly naieve comments during this airing of TVO’s The Agenda http://theagenda.tvo.org/economics-uncertain-times
I thought Perry Mehrling and David Laidler made the best points about current orthodoxy and the need to learn from history.