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To: Chip McVickar who wrote (921)	10/21/1998 10:02:00 AM
From: Robert Douglas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3536

Speaking Tuesday at a Woodrow Wilson International Center dinner, Rubin said the willingness of industrial nations to extend excessive credit without properly weighing risk contributed significantly to the world's ongoing fiscal problems. Bankers will be bankers. What I mean by this is that for as long as I can remember bankers always find themselves in messes because what they THOUGHT was prudent lending turns out to have been imprudent. It's like the investor who buys the stock or mutual fund that has had the best 10-year performance thinking that is the safest move, only to find that she had bought in at a speculative top. Bankers regard as safe whatever their brethren in the banking industry think is safe also. And like lemmings, they periodically run together off a cliff. Let's see there was Latin debt, oil exploration debt, leveraged buyout debt, real estate speculation debt, Asian debt, hedge-fund debt…..what am I forgetting? Every few years, like clockwork, it's another blunder by these wacky, fun-loving bankers. But if Rubin wants to blame bankers, he is really blaming himself. Himself in the sense that he is representing the U.S. government which is SUPPOSED to be regulating this reckless bunch of thrill seekers. What ever happened to the bank examiner? Isn't it the job of the examiner to hold up a flag and say “Wait a minute, you sure have a lot of loans to one borrower”? Or did all that go out with the Bailey Building and Loan? It is a wonderful life. -Robert