Pharmacist.jpgThe Bank for International Settlements has radioed in with its doomed-to-fail regulatory proposal for financial products. Following in the footsteps of an industry that has done a stellar job limiting access to potentially harmful and addictive products, the BIS wants to use pharmaceuticals as a template for financial products.

“In a scheme analogous to the hierarchy controlling the availability of pharmaceuticals, the safest securities would, like non-prescription medicines, be available for purchase by everyone,” the BIS, which acts as a forum for the world’s central banks, said in its annual report.
“Next would be financial instruments available only to those with an authorization, like prescription drugs; another level down would be securities available only in limited amounts to pre-screened individuals and institutions, like drugs in experimental trials,” the BIS said.
“Finally, at the lowest level would be securities that are deemed illegal.”

Incredibly, by advocating supply restrictions on certain products, the BIS may have found a way for the boxes-and-arrows crowd to make even more money on structured products.
BIS wants financial products ranked like medicines [Reuters]

Comments (13)

  1. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 10:56 AM

    YEssssssssss!!!!!!!
    ~R. Limbaugh

  2. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 10:59 AM

    Yum! This is going to be great.

  3. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 11:03 AM

    Does this mean there will be shady pinstripped men in alleys all over the financial district whispering that “they got CDS, first ones free”

  4. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 11:03 AM

    good grief

  5. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 11:05 AM

    Let’s spice up this post. Take time to remember the best asset CNBC had.
    http://manhattan.smugmug.com/gallery/4996699_KGhm6/4/299696880_5gpR6#299696880_5gpR6-A-LB

  6. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 11:07 AM

    BLANUS!
    BOOM

  7. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 11:12 AM

    docter can you prescribe me some highly leveraged exposure to the mexican coke shark farming industry?

  8. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 11:29 AM

    This is a pointless and arbitrary process, considering no one really knows how to assess risk (e.g., MBS).

  9. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 12:57 PM

    Total nonsense. Wall St employs the alleged best and brightest. They’ll be able to pass whatever silly “pre-screened individuals and institution” tests you can think of unless they’ve found a cure for greed. It’s the compensation stupid.

  10. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 1:41 PM

    Mr. Brennan looks stoked.

  11. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 1:42 PM

    this just guarantees more political power to Capitol Hill, seeing as they can decide the who, when, how much and to whom of these “prescriptions” etc; and it guarantees greater profits to GS and the like since supply will be restricted to this elite group

  12. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 2:46 PM

    The problem is that C and GM would have been given a ranking on a par with a drug like St. Joseph’s Childrens Aspirin. Good one, Euros!

  13. Posted by guest | June 29, 2009 at 3:05 PM

    You got some CDS? You got some credit linked notes? I’ll suck ya dick!

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