The most important thing to understand about the Basel III regulations is that you don’t understand them.
Part of the reason you don’t understand Basel III (or Basel II or Basel I) is because international finance has its own language, and international finance is a little bit complicated. But the main reason you don’t understand them is because you’re not meant to. The regulations are byzantine, labyrinthian and, well — Baselian. The regulations are for insiders. You also don’t understand dairy regulations. They too were written for insiders. My claim is that the opacity of both is deliberate. Insiders don’t want it to be easy for normal people — outsiders — to know what’s going on.
