So, a selection of mostly stupid, arrogant, overpaid expenses cheats with deep psychological flaws tells a another bunch of stupid, arrogant, overpaid expenses cheats with deep psychological flaws that they have "all been very, very naughty boys!" Well, takes one to know one, I suppose. Anyway the Parliamentary committee for banking - yes, that was 'banking', you didn't misread - finds that the nincompoops running HBoS were, to quote a phrase, "not fit for purpose". Well, yes, they were in charge and the bank went broke so I think we knew that without a load of wafflers, most of whom being incapable of running a whelk stall, spelling it out for us. But what I really want to know is who was responsible for forcing Lloyds, a reasonably well run bank, into a shotgun wedding with this wreck which ruined the Lloyds share price? Do the names Brown & Balls occur? Well now, I wonder whatever happened to them?
Pot - Kettle indeed. Makes me puke. The timing (FSA now closed down) means these are empty words uttered for a cheap headline by empty politicos. The story goes that once upon a time the Governor of The Bank of England had only to raise an eyebrow and any miscreant banker would scurry back into his hole. Total bollocks of course, regulators were always ineffective and always will be.
Post Big Bang the City ethos became pretty rough. Then along came the management gurus and the 'big swinging dicks' and if you did not take fearsome (but exceedingly profitable) risks you were out on your ear. You too can wind your elderly Silver Ghost up to 150mph+ and jolly exciting too but God help you at the chicane. Very seldom do folk get done for dangerous driving and the naughty boys will IMHO walk away unscathed. Next time you run a rip roaring party see how popular you are when you take away the gin! Mind you I can't see Osbo running a rip roaring party ever.
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Posted by: rogerh | Friday, 05 April 2013 at 10:24
You're right, Roger, as much as anything it was the macho 'rulers of the universe' attitude that did for them - and us!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 05 April 2013 at 10:32
I don't know, I still suspect the 'macho' attitudes were based, at least in part, on the knowledge that if they do 'have conjugal relations with a member of the Canis lupus familiaris subspecies' then it would be us who bailed them out (as we ended up doing).
I think .gov should be removed entirely from any involvement in the banking sector, confined to setting interest rates, and absolutely nothing else. Then let's see some free market economics at work (and watch all those risk takers and bonus makers go to the wall).
Not holding my breath though.
Posted by: Able | Friday, 05 April 2013 at 10:49
A very good read on banking is "Where Are the Customer's Yachts?" by a good American Fred Schwed Jr. He was working on Wall Street in 1929 and wrote his book in 1940, the title is an old Wall St joke..... Under 'Horizons and Limits of Regulation' he discusses just that and wisely too. A quote:-
"God tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb - No he don't, look around you".
Posted by: rogerh | Friday, 05 April 2013 at 11:28
“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under”
“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.”
H. L. Mencken
Posted by: Able | Friday, 05 April 2013 at 12:52
Top man, that Mencken!
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 06 April 2013 at 09:11