Michael Lewis [Liar’s Poker, The Big Short] reviews a new book: “The End of Alchemy”
“King’s book draws on his experience of running a central bank [BOE]-- and of managing a financial crisis -- to diagnose the ills of modern finance.
“The first thing that King thinks must be done is to separate the boring bits of banking (providing a safe place to deposit money, facilitating payments) from the exciting ones (trading)…
“The riskier assets from which banks stand most to gain (and lose) would then be vetted by the central bank, in advance of any crisis, to determine what it would be willing to lend against them in a pinch if posted as collateral...
“It would also have a handy, simple rule to determine if any given bank is solvent: the difference between its “effective liquid assets” and its “effective liquid liabilities... The rule -- call it the King Rule -- would be that a bank’s effective liquid assets must exceed its effective liquid liabilities. If they don’t, the bank is insolvent, and its deposits would be moved without any panic or trouble to a bank that isn’t.
http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/ ... rom-itself