Lets review what has happened so far.....
Resignations - None
Arrests - None
Criminal investigations - err, maybe or then again maybe not.....
Public Inquiries - None
Fines - £59.5 million (now you might have heard a larger number, but check out the FSA statement for the facts).
So, if you were Barclays, would you do it again. Lets look at the numbers. Profits before tax last year was £5.8 billion, while operating expenses were £20 billion. That fine represented about 1 percent of profits and 0.3 percent of costs. This fine wasn't even a blip on their balance sheet.
None of the senior management was fired. While this reprehensible scam was going on, they were pulling in multi-million pound salaries. Would Barclays do it again? The incentive structure strongly favours repetition.
This is so wrong in so many ways, it is difficult to know where to channel the outrage. However, lets just focus on the big picture. Something is rotten at the heart of this country. Deceit goes unpunished. Our economy is ruined in order to enrich a tiny minority.
Diamond and his sorry crew continue to get away with it. They always do.
4 comments:
Alice as usual you've pretty much nailed it .
How to channel the outrage .
It will occurr and when it does last summer may look like a cakewalk .
There are those of us who believe that the only sane way forward economically is to cut public spending and red tape to enable future growth. That's well known as one of the "sides" in the present economic debate.
This activity by Barclays and the rest seriously damages any credibility that "free marketers" have. And that is how seriously damaging this fraud is. Hence the idea will grow that some sort of violent action is the best way - unless we put these people on trial and get some sackings going as well.
Throw the money lenders out of the temple, and lets hope the dogs outside know how to deal with them. It's no use relying on our politicians they have sold their souls to the money lenders and media barons.
The whole LIBOR scandal is BS. Barclays are being left to swing in the wind, when its obvious that this was being done systematically with the complete knowledge (and probably active encouragement) of the FSA, the BoE and most assuredly the economic genius in charge at the time, Gordon Brown. They were all (rightly) petrified the entire banking system was going to collapse and with it the whole Western economy (which was on the cards, make no mistake about it), and more importantly (to them) their grasp on power and influence.
So the word will have gone out - 'Tell a few porkies boys, don't worry, its for the greater good'. And now, the Powers That Be will deny all knowledge of such nods and winks, because they are amoral b@stards who will do anything to keep their grip on power.
I couldn't care less about a few bankers chasing money. Thats virtually sainthood compared to the power grasping pyschopaths who want to rule us. They are the ones we need to be angry at. We are being fobbed off with bankers, when its the politicians who need to be swinging in the wind, preferably literally.
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