Banker’s Job Preservation Society

There is a general air of astonishment at the capacity of the bank directors and executives to hold on their very well remunerated positions. There is, also, a strong desire for vengeance and retribution which is ugly to behold but understandable in the circumstances.

I hold no candle for the bankers but want to shed a little light and lighten the dimness of the current debate.

The politicians could require the resignations of whomever they wish in a heartbeat. The mutterings about due process are a smokescreen.

Yes, the bankers broke their trainset and should be punished accordingly. Certainly, they should not be left in post as they are hardly the best people to fix the problems since they only understand one mode of business and that mode will not be required again.

Anyone who says that the banks could not continue with out these executives does not understand the computerised nature of modern banking and is begging the question of why the banks need recapitalisation etc. There isn’t an awful of banking going on right now nor is there likely to be for quite some time to come.

So why are these goons still in place.

It is all to do with politics and optics.

The bankers were only doing what the central bankers, regulators and, ultimately, the politicians allowed them to do. Agreed, the bankers lobbied hard to be granted the freedoms that led to the debacle and the pol’s and regulators probably didn’t really understand what was going on (as indeed it seems the bankers themselves did not).

But the ultimate responsibility belongs to the politicians.

But keeping the bankers in place gives the simple minded something to focus on. If that lightning rod were taken away, the problems would not magically go away. Further, the minds of the simple would turn then to focus on the cause of the problem as opposed to the perpetrators.

So that is my interpretation of the longevity of the overlords of banking. They are still there to act as protection, smokescreen and lightning rod for our incompetent masters, the Government.