Wednesday 4 August 2010

Terms of payment

Banks in the UK are reporting healthy profits ... they seem to have 'turned the corner'. Bad debts are down. Sounds like good news .. and it is .. in the sense that our fortunes are inextricably linked to those of the banks.

However, what about 'fairness'. There is little doubt that reckless behaviour by bankers, seemingly fuelled by both corporate and personal greed, was a major factor behind the global recession ... a recession which means that you and I - and especially our children - are going to pay for for many years to come. The living - and retirement - standards of millions of people will be worse than they should have been.

Yet the banks - and those same bankers - are now on the up. Profits are rising. Bonuses are rising. I would have liked at least some trace of guilt, humility and regret.

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