It's not just the bankers who will be hanged

Beer Moth

As it stands now, the banking industry is a dead-weight around the shoulders of every working person in the country. They take massive profits and bonuses, they earn wages that most of us can only gasp at, and then they complain that they can't survive if they are made to pay taxes.

Why would we look forward to an increase in the number of such greedy people?

AP

The reality is that our entire economy is built upon banking, remove the UK from the forefront of banking and what shall we go back to? Pick up from where we left off in 1979 perhaps? Our current masters have the absolute knack of plucking defeat from the jaws of victory so I suppose anything is possible.

Personally, I would focus all our attention on the FSA, the most incompetent self serving organisation on the planet.

General Zod

Do you really want to see how things would be if the banks left?

Besides which, we have a huge investment in them now and we cannot afford to see them not succeed.

Snowman

Beer Moth @ 5.27:

not for me to defend the bankers, but shouldn’t you have ranted about them up to about two years back?

Their bonuses touched the stratosphere then, millions of householders used to re-mortgage about every nine months or so, the Exchequer was rejoicing at the sight of juicy cheques from the banks that accounted for almost two fifth of total tax revenues spending the dosh on salaries and pensions of GPs and stuff like that, and the whole nation, or at least the 70% plus of it that owned their houses, was talking about little more than the rising house prices.

It was insane of the Treasury, the Bank of England, and the regulating authorities to allow the inflation of this single asset class to run amok. It seems equally insane to kill off the sector that merely facilitated the ‘no bust no boom’ idiocy.

And another thing: if the likes of LP Morgan move out, what are you proposing to replace them with? Mining, steel bashing, knitting?

charles hercock

THE POLITICS OF ENVY HAVE ALWAYS HAD A DEVASTATING EFFECT ,ESPECIAALY WHEN INTERTWINED WITH FINANCE-ASK MR HEALEY

Short the UK

Snowman - you are spot-on.

I am waiting for the economic journalists to turn their guns on the MPC, Treasury and Number 10. All this banker bashing is a smokescreen for these tools to hide behind. They'll never fess up, looks like it is up to Joe Public to slag them off in the blogosphere.

House price inflation is a cancer in the heart of our economy - bring on a capital gains tax, if the monetary authorities can't do their job properly. String up the MPC members who voted for a cut in 2005, have these twits apologised?

Rob C

Typical short-term policies from a dying government without vision. This government has always been more interested in headlines than what was/is in the interests of the country or any of it's people. Why buck the trend now with only weeks remaining?

Beer Moth

Snowman

You weren't reading me two years ago.

emil

The law of unintended consequences.

Can't say they haven't been warned.

seb

snowman

Hear, hear! We need banks. We don't, however, need a return to the lunacy of the Casino Economy. How, of course, the UK can begin to reconstruct a real economy when it is led by poltroons and fantasists in all of the main parties is a deeply troubling question.

Chuck Unsworth

Well one thing's for sure, and that is that Darling will not be around to see the consequences of his and Brown's treachery.

Sevo Slade

Senior, credible Conservatives -- Ken Clarke immediately comes to mind -- need to go on the offensive with major governments, corporations, and ratings agencies reassuring them that the Nightmare on Downing Street will soon be over and that no rash actions should be taken until the adults have re-taken control of the levers of power. This needs to be done NOW, before sterling dives below parity with the euro; foreign investors demand higher rates of interest for holding gilts; and the exodus of companies, headquarters, investors and individuals kicks off. We are on the brink, and we urgently need to stabilize the patient and prevent permanent brain damage before any sort of recovery can begin.

Frank Leader

I don't suppose the Bankers would have sold our Gold Reserves when Prudence did. Had the 'financial genius' waited he cold have got £10 billion pound more. This is just a mere drop in the ocean of the colossal debt he has created. He has stolen money from Private Pension Funds. Now this apology of a government wants to grab Charity Contribution from the NHS hospitals.

Nicholas

Re Slevo Slade's comment on the infantile, imbecilic, economic crimewave being perpetrated by New Labour's last ditch werewolves. I heard on the news this morning that the Nazi idiot Balls has promised £12.5m to the parents of disabled children.

Rob

Banks are a business. They made what they could. The constraint should be the market; a profitable business attracts new firms, compete on price, value, marketing, etc. and the profits are spread around over more firms and we all get more employment. Abolition of the Glass-Steagall act was the first mistake because it allowed the creation of oligopolies, too big to fail. After that, nothing would stop them, not the FSA, Treasury or Brown because an economy cannot be controlled by diktat, legislation, targets, etc. only by the market. Government action must be to make the market work optimally. Labour’s great delusion is that the market is evil and must be supplanted by Government. From this all their problems stem; confusing money with wealth, overtaxing, target culture, totalitarianism, etc.

Banking has three key problems; they can print money, are too big, too few and too close to the government. These can be solved by reinstatement of Glass-Stegall to cut them down in size and deny access to all or deposits. Stricter control of fractional banking to prevent them printing money. Replace the FSA with the BOE. Lower the barriers to entry to the business. Let them go bust if they fail. And of course sensible interest rates. Then, we will still have a vastly profitable business we can tax with fewer obscene bonuses and no risk to the taxpayer or our deposits.

In2minds

Sevo Slade @ "credible Conservatives - Ken Clarke immediately comes to mind" - what! Credible and Clarke? Never.

Chris lancashire

In2minds - yes, Clarke. You know - the chap who was the Uk's most successful post-war Chancellor and who handed Brown a golden legacy for which he smallmindedly refused to write a thankyou letter. That Clarke.

2trueblue

What a gift for Brown to be able to deflect any resposibility for the financial mess on to someone else! If this government can not take any responsibility for the mess on any level then we will see the £ fall below the value of the euro.
Come think it is great fun for them to bash the bankers right now. They were in charge, changed the reporting line, and spent a lot of time schmoozing up to the very worst offenders in the banking sector. They were so ignorant and did not even begin to try and see where it was all going, borrowing was too easy for everyone and now we are all going to have to pay for it. Brown/Balls have absolutely no idea how badly they have let the country down and do not care. The divide between the rich and poor has grown massively during Browns time. No lessons learnt there. (Not to mention MPs lining their own pockets at our expense, tax free!)

Brown has sat back and let Britain be neutered in the EU because of spite and not allowing us our vote. Britain has been a great worldwide finance centre and the Franco/German hatred of this has now been allowed an open door by Brown to destroy it and our economy.

If we continue to bash the bankers for sport, and entire economy will suffer, and we will not be part of the recovery worldwide. Thank you Gordon. You received a very healthy economy from the Tories and you have managed to destroy it totally. We are entering a long bleak futures and you Brown are the main architect.

Minnie Ovens

Beer Moth
December 29th, 2009 5:27pm

It is a severe concern that this fellow may be symbolic, either of the traditional rant of the old Labour party, or the dumbing down of our educational system.
I think Beer Mat would be a better name. Then a little spillage from glasses might improve him After all he cannot get anymore stupid.