Following the recent banking scandals, the University of Liverpool’s Jack Robinson writes for LS Media on why we haven’t drawn attention to corruption earlier:
It’s been a bad week for the banks. In the past few days we have heard of two new scandals in the industry. First, leaked e-mails have revealed that staff at Barclays bank (and others, pending investigation) have been fixing the ‘Libor rate’; they have manipulated lending rates to massage their own losses and gains. Second, the FSA has found that Britain’s banks have been unfairly selling complicated products to small businesses whilst they were supposed to be protecting these same small businesses from volatile interest rates.
The details don’t really matter. What does matter is that we see more and more headlines in newspapers reporting the scourge of the City, immorality of the rich and greed of the bankers. It won’t be long now before the Oxford English Dictionary recommends replacing the ‘b’ in banker with a ‘w’ to make sure that everyone around you knows just quite how much you hate the lot of them. Because, remember, if we had worked hard enough and were clever enough to succeed in a such a ruthless but well-rewarded profession then we would, without a doubt, march to Canary Wharf and tell our own Chief Executive in no uncertain terms exactly what we thought of him and his morally bankrupt corporation. Of course we wouldn’t. In the same way that, probably, if any one of us were a successful and high-earning comedian who had the opportunity to avoid paying tens of thousands of pounds of tax, perfectly legally, we would. I take absolutely no hesitation in saying that these people, be they bankers or comedians, have been greedy and immoral. But please let us not be so naïve and sanctimonious as to say that most people would not have done the same if the circumstances allowed.
As I type, I hear that the President of Barclays bank has resigned; due at the Treasury Select Committee tomorrow to face questions over the fixing of the Libor rate and undoubtedly over the general state of the banking sector. Bob Diamond, surely, will take a kicking from the MPs on the committee and quite rightly. He is responsible for his employees and they, possibly illegally, have been screwing over everyone else with the sole intention of swelling their bonus. But the problem is that the our economic system encourages this, and always will. Capitalism has turned everybody into a consumer and we all rely on the system and the banks. If the banks do well, regardless of how they do it, the economy does well; there are more jobs, fewer people go bankrupt and people can afford to start buying that posh, French jam with the red-and-white checked lid.
Full article here.
Bankers corrupt? We would do the same
It’s been a bad week for the banks. In the past few days we have heard of two new scandals in the industry. First, leaked e-mails have revealed that staff at Barclays bank (and others, pending investigation) have been fixing the ‘Libor rate’; they have manipulated lending rates to massage their own losses and gains. Second, the FSA has found that Britain’s banks have been unfairly selling complicated products to small businesses whilst they were supposed to be protecting these same small businesses from volatile interest rates.
The details don’t really matter. What does matter is that we see more and more headlines in newspapers reporting the scourge of the City, immorality of the rich and greed of the bankers. It won’t be long now before the Oxford English Dictionary recommends replacing the ‘b’ in banker with a ‘w’ to make sure that everyone around you knows just quite how much you hate the lot of them. Because, remember, if we had worked hard enough and were clever enough to succeed in a such a ruthless but well-rewarded profession then we would, without a doubt, march to Canary Wharf and tell our own Chief Executive in no uncertain terms exactly what we thought of him and his morally bankrupt corporation. Of course we wouldn’t. In the same way that, probably, if any one of us were a successful and high-earning comedian who had the opportunity to avoid paying tens of thousands of pounds of tax, perfectly legally, we would. I take absolutely no hesitation in saying that these people, be they bankers or comedians, have been greedy and immoral. But please let us not be so naïve and sanctimonious as to say that most people would not have done the same if the circumstances allowed.
As I type, I hear that the President of Barclays bank has resigned; due at the Treasury Select Committee tomorrow to face questions over the fixing of the Libor rate and undoubtedly over the general state of the banking sector. Bob Diamond, surely, will take a kicking from the MPs on the committee and quite rightly. He is responsible for his employees and they, possibly illegally, have been screwing over everyone else with the sole intention of swelling their bonus. But the problem is that the our economic system encourages this, and always will. Capitalism has turned everybody into a consumer and we all rely on the system and the banks. If the banks do well, regardless of how they do it, the economy does well; there are more jobs, fewer people go bankrupt and people can afford to start buying that posh, French jam with the red-and-white checked lid.
Full article here.
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About the author
Deputy Editor. Beckie is a final-year Japanese student at the University of Leeds. She is Editor-in-Chief of Lippy: No Gloss and Features Editor of Leeds Student.