jonc

It's ridiculous to say bankers hold the everyone to ransom. They no more want the failure of this country's and the world's economy than you or I. The salaries and bonuses are paid in proportion to how much revenue they generate and their productivity, although there are some who have negotiated a guaranteed percentage of bonus in their terms of employment, this practice is being phased out. New recruits can no longer negotiate guaranteed bonuses. There is still some way to go but banks are no longer rewarding failure and there has been a 50% reduction in unconditional bonuses and the bonus pools are now risk adjusted. The FSA brought in the code of practice for remuneration for not just banks but also for trade desks in insurers, re-insurers, brokerages, building societies, and hedge funds.

If you want to talk of obscene salaries and bonuses, take a look at the pay and bonuses of the "fat-cats" of the public sector funded by the private sector taxpayers and who continue to be rewarded for failure.

GlesgaKiss

Rewarding failure would not even be an option in a truly capitalist environment. To be honest the whole populist slant is laughable... to suggest or even begin to blame the 'free market' for such a situation. What a f*cking backwards world we live in.

I certainly haven't got a problem with what the banks have done... what can we blame them for - being human? People always try and make the most of the situation they're in; 'the bankers', as they're lovingly referred to now, have only taken advantage of theirs.

tony de wonderful

Except the whole bail-out thing?

hodgy0_2

is it your view then, that the free market should have run its course and we should not have used public money to prop the banking system up

(ps I am under no illusion that we were 18hrs from "global financial collapse" whatever that would of meant I don't know -- but certainly in the short term the ATM machine would have refused to give me my money)

Leslie

I cannot see where I said that the bankers wanted this country to fail. They have however forced the country to back up their dishonest dealings with toxic debts to keep them from failing themselves since they are necessary to this country's economy. They know this of course and have used the situation to their own advantage and on top of that are paying themselves obscene salaries and bonuses with what amounts to the peoples' money.

Of course I would not endorse the pay and bonuses of the fat cats that you mention either.

Les