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Monday, July 09, 2012

bankers

amidst all the hoohah about the current crisis at barclays bank there have been a few lone voices crying out for the attacks on the banking institution to stop. they are a faint echo of the please that bob diamond made at the time of the last crisis in confidence in the banks and bankers.

one of those voices is boris johnson, the mayor of london (and probably never going to be prime minister - because his next gig will pay him too much to contemplate the prime ministerial job). boris has a vested interest in curtailing the bank bashing - he sees london as being a thriving financial hub, maintaining itself as the main place to do business.

what boris seems to be forgetting is that people are not bashing the banks because it is fun (even though it is), they are able to have a long and constant pop at the banks because they don't seem to be able to do their jobs very well.
if it is not misselling of financial products to clients, then it is fixing the inter bank lending rate. if it is not that then it is about the bonuses, and the weak justification for them, or it is about the fact that they are not lending to the very people that david cameron has said that the uk economic recovery is dependent on: small and medium sized businesses.

from what boris is saying it doesn't matter that they are doing some dodgy thngs, we should forgive and forget, turn a blind eye and move along all because the banks generate a lot of tax income in the country (a large percentage of that being taxes paid by the bulk of their staff unable to afford a fancy dan lawyer) and this should give them a pass when it comes to these recent scandals.
could that be how this privileged tory sees the world - the rich (and supposed wealth creators) should be allowed to get away with anything scot-free because they are rich? the flip side of this view is that the only criminals are poor.
oh hold on that is just how the tories think.

seems to me that the banks are all too happy to provide a rod for their own backs, because they know that they have friends in high places who might talk tough but will always avoid doing something that might upset the banks and financial institutions of the financial world.

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