Vince Cable contradicts himself.

Vince Cable, the UK’s “business secretary” is famous for promoting two mutually exclusive ideas. One is that there is too much debt, e.g. see here and here. And the second is that banks should not be too heavily regulated. E.g. see here or here. Spotted the self-contradiction? No? Well it’s like this.

Banks are in the business of debt creation. That is, as far as banks are concerned, the more money they can lend the better. And if they make silly loans, well they aren’t too bothered because they know the taxpayer will pick up the pieces if it all goes horribly wrong.

And of course that’s why governments regulate banks: so as to minimise taxpayer exposure.

So the less regulation there is, the more debt there is. So what does the old duffer, Vince Cable want? More debt or less debt? Darned if I know.

He should keep his gob shut and stop wasting everyone’s time till he’s thought up some sort of coherent policy on this subject.