Have just read Robert Peston’s column over at the BBC site, and thought it was such a good, simple, explanation of the what went wrong with the banking system over the last decade that it was worth highlighting for any readers who might be interested in these kinds of things (& really everybody should be concerned about this issue, because unless there are significant changes in the way that the banks are regulated we’re probably going to see a similar “boom and bust” happen all over again in a couple of decades!)
As Peston explains, the miraculous growth which the banks saw, over the last decade or so, was very much the result of smoke and mirrors, and rash gambles, rather than because our bankers are financial geniuses with a previously unknown level of insight into the ways the markets work. In short, their stroke of genius was simply to lend more than the banks could afford to based on their levels of real assets, a strategy that worked fine, up until the point that the bubble burst.
To my mind, coming up with, and following, this irresponsible business strategy in no way merited the high wages, and ludicrous bonuses, the bankers paid themselves. We could have just grabbed a few gambling addicts, put them in charge of our financial institutions, and would probably have ended up with the same net result in the end, and for much lower wages in the mean time.
Anyway Robert Peston says it all a lot better, and with more clarity than I can manage, so go read his piece here: Why bankers aren’t worth it
Tags: Add new tag, Finance
At the end of the day, it only takes a few individuals in the right places to make the wrong decisions: and we are all screwed. The Bonus culture should be killed off. These people should not need intensives to do their job. The rest of us get on fine without them.
City “Experts” indeed.
There is no such thing has city experts – as you point out – they are just like gamblers betting on the 4.20 racehorse at Exeter.
We’ve had casino capitalism on the trading floors of City firms, and now we have casino macro-economics at the Bank of England.
The City is now full of sitters…people in offices behind laptops…dealing casino like with sophisticated computer models…..producing what?…making money and are too big to fail…..they are the new dinosaurs…
When, like Iceland, is the UK-PLC-Gamble.com going on its knees begging to join the Euro – so, you soothsayers in the City of Slickers, who love to gamble with other peoples money – going to take a punt and not up the Cam !
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasise that when you were young and prices seemed reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
NatWest said that it had made £3bn of additional lending available to small and medium firms – and had produced a guide to give firms an insight into what it expected customers to have prepared when they came to discuss getting a loan.
This statment does make me ‘smile’. Natwest offering business loan at 5.5% !!! and the base rate is 0.5% – small business do need help to survive the downturn..I do believe Natwest is being unreasonable!
Thanks for pointing out that BBC article, like you said, very good piece. You should write more of these serious posts. I don’t mind your weird news items like the one on the dangers of beds, but I’m not a great fan of your travel pieces; don’t mean to be rude but maybe you should leave that stuff to the experts.
I read in The Guardian:
A bit bloody late. The bankers, having been pulled out of the swimming pool after falling in while under the influence of too much champagne, have dried off and are now racing round the block again as if nothing had happened. I really do not see why we persist in the notion that the City is so essential: there is no evidence that their wheeler-dealing has benefited people here.
Whilst they’re at it, let them also talk about the introduction of corporal and capital punishment for bankers. World economy would recover so much faster if, collectively all over the globe, these vile sh*t k*ckers were horsewhipped publicly untill their blood ran into their boots, and if they had a hangman looking over their shoulders during every bankers’ meeting…
Here’s a prediction of what will happen when the G20 finance ministers discuss banker’s pay next month:
They will come up with a few homilies about the bankers’ failure to think in the long-term rather than the short-term and the need to address the needs of the broader economy etc. They will say something along the lines of their rewards being commensurate with their usefulness to the economy at large. They will look suitably serious when the issue of unemployment is mentioned.
Eventually they will fail to come to a consensus over precisely what action they should take but this will be presented as a success. Finally, a fairly well-meaning but ineffectual course of action will be presented in the form of a document that nobody, in their right mind, will ever want to read.
How come this article is dated July and the statement from Mr Peston is from today 2009 09 14? Yes he is good at analysing the situation and coming up with words which clearly put the whole thing in perspective. The feedback is also very informed and in my own opinion a reasonable description, except for Munni when he/she says that prices will rise – incorrect according to my sources (also BBC), prices will continue to fall and cash will be hard to get.
But as to the past, is the onus not now on the “government” (soon a thing of the past?) to represent the majority and reclaim that money, which was and quite clearly will be documented, taken from individuals and passed through various mechanisms which the banks created so that the casino wins could be made, knowing full well that it could only go on for a certain length of time before the machine would topple. Am I the only one to put the claim in now for our governments to go out and get that money back! The judicial system would then be the next boys in line if they fail to deliver. And they would have to step down since they are on the same side as the bankers, but being used to lambskin slippers they would offer little resistance knowing that the government were themselves on a slippy slope. So basically all the professionals could be called up to show what they have gained through the plundering of “your average citizen” and then when it is agreed that they return this money by opening their swimming pools, handing out the keys of their limousines, to people who have been voted deserving, by a large number of citizens on open and 100% transparent websites, hey, we have the machine. We just have to take the decision. And the whole thing will roll into action.
Roll on happiness for the most of us. The bankers have had their roll, they will get to know many of us….at home!
The above comment is part of a long story “The universe and so on from bang to bank” by Kenneth Keen
The FSA is clearly ineffectual/incompetent in regulating the banks and banker bonuses. “We” are becoming even more cross about the banking process and the “products” and “instruments” offered daily in the post and on television. We know that bankers are just money lenders (loan sharks) and they do not fool the “person on the omnibus” any more.
@ Kenneth
Regarding the date of this article, & the Robert Peston piece you’re commenting on, the reason for the discrepancy is that I linked to the main page of RP’s BBC blog, rather than the specific article I was talking about, which is actually here. So it sounds as if you’re talking about a different article of his, but, still, I have to agree that he’s generally able to cut to the heart of issues & explain things in a very clear & accessible way.
So far as your views go, I tend to agree that we, the tax payer, have been pretty much taken for a ride by big business, & that govt haven’t protected our interests as they should have. Sadly, unlike you, I don’t see a day of reckoning, or even recompense, coming any time soon, not while govt seems more interested in the welfare of big business, than it is in the electorate. *sigh*
@ Jeff
I pretty much agree with you entirely, the FSA aren’t doing the job they’re meant to do, although a cynic might say that they are managing to act as a magnet for some of the public anger which rightfully should be aimed at Govt for their handling of this debacle. It seems to be the way that govt operates these days- farm out as much responsibility as possible to agencies or quangos so that when things do hit the fan they can hold their hands up and say “Not our fault”. Our whole system seems pretty much broken to me, but since it’s not in the interests of any given govt to fix it I don’t see things changing any time soon, unfortunately.
If nothing is done, the problems will happen again.
If as expected nothing beyond a few fig leaf measures at the G20 are announced, then a crash will happen again.
The signs are that the current ‘ recovery ‘ is just a financial bubble, so the crash may happen soon. This crash will be the final warning to bring the financial system under proper control ( and run for the interests of all, rather than the rich ego happy). If it is not done then the crash after that could be the catastrophe that was feared a year ago or worse.
I tend to agree that without much tighter controls this is all going to happen again, and maybe in the longer term it would be better if it happens sooner rather than later, while anger over the last crash and bailout is still fresh in the electorate’s mind; that way govt might feel pressured into taking substantive action to regulate the banking industry, rather than just making the right noises. Certainly I’d be very surprised if we saw another bail out so soon after the last, I don’t think the public would stomach that right now.
Although, saying that, I believe the bailout was a mistake in the first place, the banks with the short-sighted, greedy business models should have been allowed to go under, just like any other badly run business does, & the bailout money should have been spent to deal with the consequences this had for the economy & population in general; It seems asinine to give money to failed banks, & rely on them to hand it out to stimulate the economy, when govt could just lend it directly to business & individuals, according to their needs.
OK, this would have required a certain amount of organisation & infrastructure to get started but there would have been quite a few bankers looking for jobs, and the govt may have ended up with a business which could be privatised to recoupe the initial outlay at some point.
It would still have been an expensive solution, but at least you wouldn’t have ended up with the bankers taking a cut of the bail out money, and it would have sent the message to the financial sector that it isn’t entitled to special protections where it’s own greed & incompetence leads to failure.
[...] the interests of big business before those of the electorate, as most clearly demonstrated by the economic crisis last year; Erosion of our civil liberties, in the “fight against terror”; Wasting resources on [...]
Well it seems the old adage that christmas comes earlier and earlier every year is now true for the banks as well! Darling’s announcement that he’s putting the country, & the tax payer, even further into debt to shore up Lloyds and RBS seems incredible; Surely we’re just getting to the stage of throwing good money after bad now? It wouldn’t be so galling but it’s not as if the banks seem to be lending the money which the tax payer’s given them back to the tax payer, yet at the same time the banks do seem to have the money to give their bigwigs bonuses! Yet again, while the general public are having to tighten their belts and face the reality of another frugile christmas, it looks like the bankers will be swilling champagne and gorging themselves on luxury hampers. How is it that they, and the political classes, get away with so thoroughly taking the mickey out of the general population; it beggars belief!
Damn Banks caused so many problems. They need to be held responsible!
I wonder how news of the banking wind fall tax, which is being proposed will go down, and what the actual effects of it will be? Seems to me like Brown and Darling might be doing it to court public opinion, in the run up to an election. Only time will tell exactly how much this windfall tax amounts to, but I expect it to be more for show than revenue.
I’m sure it will be a popular move with the public, but less so with the banks. The problem with the system, overall, is that we’ve let the banks get too big, and now, to an extent, we need them! The fine line that the Govt needs to walk in terms of taxing, or regulating, them is to do enough to stop the banks causing another crash a few years down the line, but at the same time not do so much that it’s cheaper to do business elsewhere. I suspect the Govt will err on the safe side of not annoying the banks too much, else they’ll all be off on the first available flights to Abu Dhabi, or some other less regulated country.