Bankers in sack-cloth & ashes!

[Jeff Maginty]

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[realityhack]

<rant>What a load of crap. Let's all categorise bankers in one great big homogenous lump and pour scorn on them without the faintest notion of how the banking world works, why don't we.
Fact is, while a small group of disingenuous loons piss about with other peoples' money - the vast majority of bankers make it possible for you to live the life you're currently enjoying. Don't confuse the mis-use of esoteric trade instruments for 95% of the banking mechanisms that oil industry and economy.</rant>

[Jeff Maginty]

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[realityhack]

Thanks for that. Until I read your post I was really struggling to differentiate between the part-time counterstaff in my local branch and the multi-millionaire chiefs at the top of the management hierarchy.

Retail banking wasn't part of my thinking there... I'm on about wholesale banking, but cheers for igniting the straw man.

[DodgyAgent]

Look who's talking! Agents are just parasites who cream off the profit from other people's labour, because they've got no talent of their own. Your username and avatar says it all really.

77I
Yes I am a parasite but I dont whinge about groups of people without explaining (or trying to explain) the logic behind my opinion. You on the other hand are a whinging little loser.

[Jeff Maginty]

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[TiroFijo]

**** them in the arse with a pointy stick that has been bashed on the ground and then dipped in some dog poo so it's a mass of splinters with germs. That'll teach em.

You tell em, they should sat at their desks wearing hairshirts!

[doodab]

<rant>What a load of crap. Let's all categorise bankers in one great big homogenous lump and pour scorn on them without the faintest notion of how the banking world works, why don't we.
Fact is, while a small group of disingenuous loons piss about with other peoples' money - the vast majority of bankers make it possible for you to live the life you're currently enjoying. Don't confuse the mis-use of esoteric trade instruments for 95% of the banking mechanisms that oil industry and economy.</rant>

The trouble with this particular view is that the "banking mechanisms that oil industry and economy" are often kept going by the same firms that are populated with "disingenuous loons", and having ****ed everything into a cocked hat those firms are now saying that they can't continue to do the first job unless we help them out. While this may indeed be true, continuing to hand out vast wodges of cash as bonuses while the man in the street suffers is not the way to elicit public sympathy. Regardless of reality this is the public's perception of what goes on and hence bankers are reviled in some sectors of society.

The fact of the matter is that an awful lot of bankers and hedgie type people have been making money (and continue to do so) in what many people see as a socially irresponsible manner. Many of them take the view that it's not their job to worry about ethics and social responsibility, but to create an "efficient market". This is disingenuous, it is clearly somebodies responsibility to guide the activity of banks in order to avoid them acting in a way that is detrimental to society as a whole, and it is the industry that has lobbied for limited regulation and toothless regulators, ergo the responsibility for keeping their house in order rests with them. That the "responsible" institutions, if they even exist, have failed so spectacularly to constrain the activities of the "loons" is pretty clear evidence that the industry needs a strong hand in order to ensure that it can actually contribute to society in the way it claims. The fact that so few bankers are willing to acknowledge this or support it wins them few friends.

Couple this with the general perception of the financial industry as being run by a bunch of amoral sharks who are not to be trusted (and we have various misselling scandals, boiler room schemes, insurance firms trying to wheedle out of paying on the slimmest of premises, front loaded pensions and so on to thank for that) and you can perhaps begin to understand why a lot of people really don't give a flying **** if there are some good bankers out there or not and see a bit of collateral damage as quite acceptable as long as the rest of them get their comeuppance. The mood is unlikely to change until these people are seen to suffer. The "few" bad bankers have spoiled for the rest of them, and it's down to the rest of them to root them out and deal with them in a way that is going to get the public back onside. So far they seem to be doing sweet **** all.

[OwlHoot]

77I
Yes I am a parasite but I dont whinge about groups of people without explaining (or trying to explain) the logic behind my opinion. You on the other hand are a whinging little loser.

WHS

and in a sense most of us are parasites, relying on and benefiting from the brilliant insights and ideas of a very few people (which include some bankers).

[Gonzo]

That's one big chip you have on your shoulder fella.



In short, the bankers could get away with their reckless behaviour because of the rewriting of the rules by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 - legislation introduced by Gordon Brown.

Public spending cuts are needed because the public sector has become too big for the country to afford any more. Who's to blame for that? Gordon.

So to summarise then, if you want anyone to blame for the country getting totally ****ed up then his name is Gordon.

Got that?