According to conventional wisdom, the Basel II Accord - a set of capital adequacy standards for international banks drawn up by a committee of G-10 supervisors - is essential if we are to avoid another financial crisis. This paper argues that this conclusion is false: Basel II is not the...

"This essay shows that government credit-allocation schemes generate incentive conflicts that undermine the quality of bank supervision and eventually produce banking crisis. For political reasons, most countries establish a regulatory culture that embraces three economically contradictory...