Reply to: Public must learn to 'tolerate the inequality' of bonuses, says Goldman Sachs vice-ch

[Dong]

Hmm, that reminds me of something...

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: extortion

Unlawful exaction of money or property through intimidation or undue exercise of authority.

[centurian]

Don't tell me our government gave them the money with no assurances????

You wanna bet on that

Rest assurred banks have been putting tremendous effort into going over their agreement (if any exists) with the government looking for every way possible to extract more money from them, while devolving any responsibility to deliver anything.

And if that doesn't work, they can just
a) Threaten to sue the government, probably under the Human Rights Act
b) Threaten to bring the economy to its knees again

[Dong]

I believe that banks can pay their employees what they want.

As soon as they pay me back!

How can they threatened to leave? Doesn't the UK taxpayer own at least some percentage of them by now??? Don't tell me our government gave them the money with no assurances????

[Zippy]

So ...
- they screw up
- we give them a lot of money to keep their badly run businesses going
- the following year they trouser a shed-load of money for doing fck all
- we then get a lecture on how this is all good for us

And - this is absolutely the best bit - this self-serving, nonsensical bollocks is delivered at St Pauls Cathedral (that'll be 10 quid to get in, btw).
To paraphrase Jesus (who I am given to understand had firm views on this matter) - you can serve God or money, so take yer pick.

You couldn't make it up.

[George Parr]

Priceless.
Flipping priceless.
I can feel a new sig coming on.

[CheeseSlice]

There are other ways to incentivise top performers in the banking industry.

For starters how about "not being fed to lions" if you do a good job today

[_V_]

Well I hope they at least send us postcards of them enjoying themselves with the loot.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mJmwQtPmus...00/bankers.jpg

Wish you were here?

[TimberWolf]

Well I hope they at least send us postcards of them enjoying themselves with the loot.

[NoddY]

All you need to know is that they have robbed you of your future.

[BrilloPad]

I work in an IB : but I cant understand why retailo/investment are not split?

And make banks to be small enough so they can fail........

[threaded]

The bankers invented the money, so it was their all along.

[AtW]

I've lost track. Is it their or tax payers money these bonuses are being paid from?

It became their money as soon as taxpayers paid them in.

HTH

[TimberWolf]

I've lost track. Is it their or tax payers money these bonuses are being paid from?

[_V_]

If you pay me £50M bonus I promise to spend it all, benefiting all of society.

Only fair I think.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

That's a hilarious article. This berk says that paying a load of gits a fortune is a longer term investment in prosperity for us all - yeah right.

Apparently, if we moan we're being short termist. But these big bonuses are being paid to people who make the maximum gains in the shortest possible time, they aren't being rewarded for longer-term investment at all.

I'm always suspicious of people who threaten that they'll all piss off to Switzerland. If you're serious about being here, stay, but don't keep threatening to go - how long would you last at Tescos if you were a checkout operator threatening to go to Co-op for an extra 10p an hour?

Phil Collins carried this threat out, and are we really the poorer without him?