I'ma struggling to understand what the endgame shall be - Bank bonuses 'to run to bil

[scooterscot]

BBC News - Bank bonuses 'to run to billions in 2011'


So everything is back to normal then? As long as there's debt to sell we're OK? This can't be the future? Are the banks really untouchable? Who the @£$£ is in charge of our country? Certainly not the government.


Tony Benn - Cabinet Minister in the 1964–1970 Labour Government

"As a minister, I experienced the power of industrialists and bankers to get their way by use of the crudest form of economic pressure, even blackmail, against a Labour Government. Compared to this, the pressure brought to bear in industrial disputes is minuscule. This power was revealed even more clearly in 1976 when the IMF secured cuts in our public expenditure. These lessons led me to the conclusion that the UK is only superficially governed by MPs and the voters who elect them. Parliamentary democracy is, in truth, little more than a means of securing a periodical change in the management team, which is then allowed to preside over a system that remains in essence intact. If the British people were ever to ask themselves what power they truly enjoyed under our political system they would be amazed to discover how little it is, and some new Chartist agitation might be born and might quickly gather momentum."

[Green Mango]

BBC News - Bank bonuses 'to run to billions in 2011'


So everything is back to normal then? As long as there's debt to sell we're OK? This can't be the future? Are the banks really untouchable? Who the @£$£ is in charge of our country? Certainly not the government.


Tony Benn - Cabinet Minister in the 1964–1970 Labour Government

Bonuses are down by a fair chunk on 2009 the last full year of LABOUR.

I believe the government is going to pass laws to encourage more of the bonuses to be paid in
company shares in order that the bankers are encouraged to be more responsible.

The bankers are close to the money and the rewards are great. Sickening it may be but with the
LABOUR government failing so pitifully to regulate the banks what could we expect.

I blame the bankers, the LABOUR set up regulator, the LABOUR government which made such
terrible decisions as the RBS takeover of ABN AMBRO to go ahead without any enquiry.

[OwlHoot]

It's really quite easy to understand - The City makes pots of money for the country, and the Government for the most part pisses money down the drain, mostly to bribe voters and placate would-be rivals in one way or another.

Also, as Clause 9 of Magna Carta is still in force, it would be unconstitutional as well as financial suicide for the Government to meddle unduly with city banks and institutions. Thick as they may be, most politicians can dimly perceive that (well apart from socialists like Tony Benn and his ilk and typical Lib Dems).

As I've often pointed out here in the past, the main blame for the current debt crisis lies with Governments, especially in the US, pressuring banks into making unsound property loans to millions of immigrants and poor people over the last ten to twenty years, which otherwise banks would presumably have been reluctant to do on favourable terms. Remember all that talk in the UK about social funds a few years ago? So even there one can see where Government meddling has led us.

[Bagpuss]

Owlhoot, your post is wrong in so many ways. The taxpayer recapitalized the banking industry to the tune of trillions worldwide, and the credit default swaps vehicles were not created by governments.


YouTube - The Crisis of Credit Visualized - Part 1

[scooterscot]

Somebody once told me to have more than one egg in the basket. As long as there's taxpayers money to prop up the system / golden egg, we're alright. What happens when revenues collected by the treasury falls less than is expected over the coming years? Raising taxes is just going to push more people out the door surely.

[vetran]

Simple to fix, the government just sends the banks new terms and conditions every month along with their loan statement, 500 sheets of annoying advertising and the letter that says despite closing all their branches and insisting all their customers learn punjabi & chinese so they can talk to the new telephone banking service, the service charges are going up 60%.

On one of the booklets tucked in the leaflet for incontinence chairs in the small print on page 623 they state any bonus payments to staff will result in foreclosure and debt collection agents being assigned. See how the Banks like their own tactics used on themselves.

[AtW]

Also, as Clause 9 of Magna Carta is still in force, it would be unconstitutional

So it's ok for Tony Liar take country into war but nothing can be done about ze City?

[OwlHoot]

The taxpayer recapitalized the banking industry to the tune of trillions worldwide, and the credit default swaps vehicles were not created by governments. ..

You're talking about attempted remedies and evasive maneuvres, once the dodgy credit was in the system, in other words results not causes.

[AtW]

What happens when revenues collected by the treasury falls less than is expected over the coming years?

You just borrow more and use PFI scams to keep debt off the books.

HTH

Gordon Brown.

[VectraMan]

I'm so sick of hearing how the bankers are to blame for everything. If it's true that the banks were allowed to carry on in a fashion that was harmful to the country at large, then the government should have stepped in to stop them. That's the government's job. You can't blame the bank(er)s, only the government.