The move away from market consistency

Full circle

"When the facts change," said the economist John Maynard Keynes when challenged on his U-turn on monetary policy during the depression, "I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

This could be some of today's former market-consistency zealots, for whom the financial crisis changed the facts. The mantra of discounting liabilities at market risk-free rates in regulation has been adapted to dilute their balance sheets' dependence on the vagaries of the market. Some are even calling for a return to th