The only worse thing than regulation is fake regulation

The Serbian capital was visited by the Free Market Road Show, the travelling event that tours across Europe with the message of freedom.

The audience in Belgrade benefitted with the unique insights of Gordon Kerr on the financial crisis. Kerr, a former banker himself, currently offers advice to governments about banking systems.

“The only worse thing than regulation is fake regulation”. With these words Kerr defined the regulatory environment in which banks operate.

He also explained how the perverse mechanism of bail outs worked in the case or Ireland: “The bankers in Ireland lured the government to the bailout asking ‘only’ for seven billion knowing that they needed much more. But once they received those seven billion they had them involved forever. After politicians gave them that amount they could not let them fail”.

“I sold ‘Credit Default Swaps’, which Warren Buffet would later call ‘weapons of mass destruction’”, explained Kerr, “nonetheless, in 2002 I met with the UK bank regulator to attempt to explain what was wrong with the accounting for derivatives and the tragic consequences it would bring”.

Assessing regulations in the EU from another angle, Rastko Petakovic noticed that “today’s beneficiaries of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) are Nestle, Kraft and Prince Charles’ conglomerate of enterprises”.

The Austrian Economics Center (AEC), in cooperation with the local partner Libek and in association with international partners such as the Liberty Fund, Global Philanthropic Trust, European Students for Liberty, Ruefa and the F.A. v. Hayek Institut, proudly organized this event in Belgrade. This was the sixteenth stop of the 7th Annual Free Market Road Show® which tours from March 26th to May 12th. 30 cities, hundreds of speakers, thousands of attendees and one message: Freedom.

More photos from Free Market Road Shows 2014