Pseudo Analysis Part 2: Banks, Idle Capital and the Game of Calvinball

This is my favourite, for it demonstrates the need for financial literacy for those seeking to do reporting that has a technical bearing. The Business Daily tells all that what to hear that banks are now drowning in capital that they don't know how and where to deploy.
This is a good one coming from a publication that devotes lots of staff resources giving an impression that banks have struggled to meet the regulator's capital requirements.
Typically, a sucessful resort to capital markets either to issue a note or seek additional equity is a mark of financial health given the fact that both forms of resource mobilisation are unsecured; therefore the capital markets regulator must be assured of the financial soundness of the issuer.
But as I have pointed out before, the Business Daily reporting has no time for such niceties - any resort to the market is a signal of desperation, they often implicitly argue. The story now suddenly switches to one where bans are portrayed stranded with idle capital.
This is a pefect example of playing a game called Calvinball - the imaginative game where the rules are not known upfront, so they keep changing as the game goes on.
I am really having fun on this subject! Not because somebody is making sense, but because the Business Daily is falling into the typical media temptation of choosing what to see in any situation.