OUR VIEW

They're at it again.

They create a problem and then they want to penalize people for trying to take cover when the time comes.

Shadow banking is the new villain in town. Just ask your aloof, incompetent central banker in the region where you live and toil.

"Officials fear that bond funds are becoming 'shadow banks,' because investors can withdraw their money on demand, even though the assets held by the funds can be hard to sell in a crisis," the FT says.

Quoting ex-Fed governor Jeremy Stein, the Times continues, "So much activity in open-end corporate bond and loan funds is a little bit bank-like. It may be the essence of shadow banking is giving people a liquid claim on illiquid assets."

After the financial crisis the Fed hit big U.S. banks with tougher sanctions causing the big boys, among other things, to reel in their bond trading. In the meantime investors, starved for yield, have pumped since 2009 more than $1 trillion into bond funds. Bond funds, to put it simply, are bulging at the seams with money and that raises the big question these bureaucrats never ask ahead of time: What happens when things change?

Here is their answer; it's the same one they always get around to one way or another--exit fees. And their excuse is always the same, just couched in different terms. This time it's fear about market fragility. But that raises still a bigger, better question: Who caused the market fragility in the first place? Don't expect a straight answer anytime soon..

All of this is just another reason for doing away with the pathetic creatures who hang around these unhallowed halls whose main function is screwing around with peoples' lives. It's just one more reason for decentralizing..

That's our view. We hope you know yours.