This has to be some kind of sick joke.

Addressing the British Bankers’ Association in London today, [Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn] King… expressed concern about the way risks taken by financial institutions had been monitored by the authorities. “For reasons of historical accident we have created over many decades a financial system in which the incentives to monitor risk-taking have been sharply reduced.”

It’s the first time I’ve heard a professional economist describe Thatcherism as an “historical accident” (I admire his honesty) but doesn’t a large slice of the blame for this endemic risk-taking by financial institutions rest with, er, regulators such as the Bank of England?