Bankers Saying 'We Got Away With it' Risk New Crisis, Kay Says

Bankers Saying 'We Got Away With it' Risk New Crisis, Kay Says

www.businessweek.com

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Bankers are resuming the risk- taking practices that led to the worst financial crisis in a century, threatening to create even worse turmoil, economist John Kay said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

For “so many people I talk to in the financial sector, it’s kind of, ‘Phew, we got away with it, now we can get on with making money in the same old way,’” Kay, a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, said in an interview yesterday. “If we do that we’re going to end up, probably quite soon, with an even larger version of the kind of crisis we’ve just been through.”

A couple of weeks ago, it was discussed whether or not the Icelanders must repay the money people abroad lost due to the bankruptcy of Landsbanki. In my opinion, they shouldn't, nor should we. The banks which are responsible for the current mess should compensate every single penny instead at a high interest rate.

It is beyond ridiculous that we, the people, are burdened with billions of debts caused by bankers who cared only about their own greed. Logically, If I take a risk on the stock exchange and I lose, I bear sole responsibility, but it seems that this does not apply for banks.

Once they have paid off their debts, they are permitted to continue to generate profits in the same old dirty way that lead to the current crisis.

We have become so tame that we swallow every crime our governments commit, which makes one wonders where the line is drawn. What has to happen for us, sheeple, to say enough is enough?
Why is there no single banker in jail?

www.businessweek.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Just before the crisis kicked off I was asked/applied for a lead process improvement role within one the big corporates, my specialism is delivering process/business changes, but the bit I like most is fixing leaky buckets.

To say this big corporate was a leaking bucket is too mild.. bare in mind this was just before the crisis hit, and looking at how they ran internally you could see they where heading for disaster.. So I turned down the role as a complete duck, on digging deeper there was no top management buy in to actually change the business, without that my role is up the creek without a paddle.. an absolutely pointless exercise.

To learn that they received a lot of bailout funds did not surprise me given the way they worked and how they where structured internally.

I really can not beleive they have changed that much.. nothing more than skin deep changes anyway.. The giveaway for me would be the sheer numbers of job vacancies for people like me they would need to help them sort out the issues they have..And to put it simply those Job vacancies have no appeared..

So, personally I am sure we will end up seeing a repeat situation, unless Govs really get involved to force change on these people by creating an in-depth standard they have to work to and are audited against or the Govs finally define a process that would allow the safe collapse of these businesses.

Since no one seems to be implementing either of these things, the only outcome is going to be a repeat of the original collapse..


[edit on 24/3/10 by thoughtsfull]