
Walter Bagehot: the revered Victorian who got almost everything wrong - tintinnabula
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/walter-bagehot-the-revered-victorian-who-got-almost-everything-wrong/
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coldtea
Err, so he thought Lincoln would lose the war, and he was in favor of bailing-
out a bank (who 8 years later went bust).

That's hardly enough to warrant the "who got almost everything wrong" title.
In general the article is just bad writing...

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cafard
Particularly if one is citing Gladstone as a candidate for greatest Victorian.
Gladstone caused quite an uproar in saying that Jefferson Davis was making a
nation--this was very much the opinion of much of the British ruling class,
but Gladstone was in the Cabinet.

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Balanceinfinity
Bagehot's dictum: During a financial panic, the central bank should lend
freely against good collateral to solvent firms at a penalty rate. The moral
hazard arises because as the lender of last resort, the central bank is
inevitably providing funds at a below market rate. This could encourage
investment by those who can hope for a bailout and not face the full negative
effects of the risk they've undertaken. However, so long as there's a penalty
rate, this should control (if not completely overcome) the relevant moral
hazard that might arise from the loans and (if you look at the system as a
whole and the costs of the panic), the moral hazard is often worth enduring.

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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20518332](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20518332)
points to another recent (and much nicer) review.

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asplake
Readers of The Economist might suspect that it’s The Spectator having fun at a
rival’s expense (the former has a Bagehot column)

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jhbadger
And the reason for that column was that Bagehot wrote for The Economist and
was the son-in-law of its founder, James Wilson.

