Given below is a conversation. Critique it.

Moderator: O.K.! That’s one for you, Alex. But I don’t understand one thing. If banks are allowed to invest only in very safe assets, what happens to all of the assets that banks currently fund?

Appleton: No big deal. These can be shifted to the capital market or funded with uninsured deposits.

Moderator: But is such disintermediation or reintermediation necessarily a good thing?

Appleton: I don’t see why not. Banks are already securitizing many of their assets, from credit-card receivables to mortgages. What I’m suggesting is only a natural extension of that process.

Butterworth: Sure, but there are natural limits to securitization. Besides, even with securitization, the bank acts as an originator. What you’re proposing, Alex, is based, I think, on the premise that there is really nothing special about banks.