Should banks be forced to write "living wills", so that they can easily be closed down when it is time for them to shuffle off this mortal coil?
No! I am against it. And I'll tell you for why. Some people, lawyers mainly, have spoken of the great cost of doing this, but that is not why I'm against the idea. I think it would send out all the wrong signals. The banks would be telling the world and the cosmos that they are afraid to die and are actually expecting to die - soon. That is a very negative attitude. In A Hero of Our Time, Mikhail Lermontov wrote: 'If I die, I die. It will be small loss to the world, and I've had about enough of it myself. I'm like a man yawning at a ball who doesn't go home to bed because his carriage hasn't come. But when it arrives - farewell!' That is a much better attitude to have. We all know we are going to die one day, but I believe we should just accept it in a casual manner. If it happens, it happens. We do not need wills. And we do not need to invite death. It will find all of us in its own sweet time.
