Daniel Hannan: If you give people more responsibility, they behave more responsibly

Daniel Hannan addresses the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg on 12th September 2013. “How about this – it may sound counter-intuitive: if you make people responsible for their own losses, if it is clear that they will carry the can, then you will not need all of these regulatory bodies, because the strongest incentive will be there to prevent bankruptcy. If you give people more responsibility, they behave more responsibly.” Source: DanHannanMEP YouTube channel.

Translated by Jadranko Brkic

(see video at the bottom of transcript)

Transcript:

Mr Deputy Speaker, allow me to make an argument which is almost past the point where it can be uttered in polite society. I am going to challenge the idea that the problems we have had in the financial sector were caused by an absence of regulation. It simply does not accord with the facts. Our own Financial Services Authority publishes a guide book on compliance with its rules that now runs to 10500 pages. With the possible exception of nuclear power, it is hard to think of a more regulated industry than the financial services sector. The reality is that this regulation, which encourages consolidation and higher compliance costs, has created the ‘too big to fail’ phenomenon that led to the crash.

How about this – it may sound counter-intuitive: if you make people responsible for their own losses, if it is clear that they will carry the can, then you will not need all of these regulatory bodies, because the strongest incentive will be there to prevent bankruptcy. If you give people more responsibility, they behave more responsibly.