Sunday, January 30, 2011

bankers

It's been a long time since I've felt politically exorcised, in large part due to the perception that everything is so self-evidently farcical that there's really nothing to add. Hold that thought...

Now read some snippets from Bob Diamon at Davos:

In emollient form afterwards, Barclays' chief executive, Bob Diamond, said the get-together had been an opportunity to deliver "very heartfelt thanks" to governments for rescuing the banking system.

"We have to recognise, although there is some fatigue, that an awful lot has been achieved over the last few years," said Diamond. "We should say thanks to the central bankers and regulators because we're operating in a much safer system than a couple of years ago."
The Guardian


Uh huh. Sure Bob, what a nice fella you are. From the same article on the Davos summit:

There was no respite when they [British ministers] met anxious financiers alarmed by "banker bashing". At a closed-door session today as the Alpine jamboree drew to an end, more than 40 bosses of banking and insurance companies met finance ministers from nations including Britain, Canada, France, South Africa, Turkey and Sweden.
The Guardian


And:

Impatient with criticism of bonuses, tax avoidance and lending to small businesses, many banks used the occasion to turn up the volume in protest at what they see as undue punishment. JP Morgan's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, snapped last week that banks were not prepared to simply "bend over and accept it" from regulators. The Goldman Sachs president, Gary Cohn, declared that extra regulations on banks would simply encourage people to put their money into riskier hedge funds.
The Guardian


I mean, this level of gall is quite astonishing, not least because it's so self-evidently farcical. How can they say this with a straight face and get away with it? Seems that, as perhaps we all suspected (or knew deep down despite hopes to the contrary), nothing has really changed over the last couple of years and business continues as usual.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

january


january
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.