A good introduction to how modern banking works, and the author makes a powerful case for requiring banks to hold more equity. She also dispels many of the myths bankers try to sell the public and politicians (hence the "new clothes"). Even though it provides a primer on banking, it did get over my head at times, and was very repetitive in the second half of the book - constantly referring to the first half. Overall, good though. ( )

Hellwig, Martin F. (Author.)

A very clear exposition that builds from very basic economic/finance first principles to an increasingly complex analysis of financial regulation, clearly defines one side of the debate over financial regulation. ( )

In short:

- The Bankers' New Clothes is a useful book in that it makes clearly the case for higher equity requirements for banks. This does seem a much more sensible path than separating ill-defined activities.

- The book does however fail to account for the difference between US and EU financial systems. As a consequence, significant costs of higher equity requirements are overlooked. The criticism of risk-weighted assets is unconvincing.

As a result, I do recommend writing this. But I also recommend to keep in mind that the author are less knowledgeable about the inner functions of the banking system and less clear-eyed than they think they are. For an European, the US centrism and EU-bashing gets irritating after a while.

Full review: http://bs-initiative.org/index.php/documents-de-travail/item/130-reaction-to-%E2... ( )