In the aftermath of the crisis, many reform-minded economists were calling for a huge step up in capital.63 Economists Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig spearheaded a call for banks to be required to hold capital up to 20–30 percent of their balance sheet, the kind of capital ratio that was typical of other businesses and hedge funds. This would have given them huge solidity. And it would have justified much lower rates of return. For the same reason, it was vigorously resisted by the global banks, which had no desire to be turned into boring providers of financial utilities. Leading
