Judging by the articles and interviews on the HSBC & Barclays bonuses there seems to have been an idea that bankers would do the gentlemanly thing and at the very least keep their huge bonuses quiet. This shows a farcical ignorance about the nature of the hellish beasts that are investment bankers.
They pride themselves on ‘gaming systems’, ‘taking on the bank – and beating it’, ‘playing the market’ they thrive on brinksmanship and testosterone fuelled dick waving – egging each other on to make ever more sophisticated ways to break laws and codes without being caught. Just look at the ‘high speed trading systems’ that’s fuelled Goldman’s new ‘gordon gekko’ image.
Well they’ve gamed global governments. Right now they’re chucking back Crystal and lighting their golden farts with $100 bills while they mercilessly mock Gordon, Obama and the rest for being gullible fools.
Tax payers money has guaranteed their risk, quantitative easing and companies desperate to get money flowing again are feeding them a fat upside again. In other words they are making billions out of the problem they created, and directly out of your money and mine – money that is now lost to us to put food in the mouths of our children, or to the country for maintaining a desperate healthcare or educational system.
They are quite literally stealing the food from our baby’s mouths.
Is it in any way a good thing? After all we do need banks to get back on their feet. I think it emphatically underlies the ‘no real change’ worry. I haven’t yet seen any proposals that are bold enough to seriously tackle this issue. While that is the case, the Godon Gekkos of our world will continue to mock us and recklessly endanger of security and wellbeing – with our own money.
