Comments on: Guarding against banking greed?

By: phil dicks

phil dicks — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:59:37 +0000

M B-J: you’re right, but what are these ‘new’ power sources? If solar/wind /etc account for, say, 5-10% of our energy needs now, then in 30 years time, with more of us needing more energy to do more things(inevitable), then solar/wind/etc may by then only account for, say, 3-5% of our energy needs. We have a massive energy-shortfall problem – it can only get worse: nuclear power carries massive security/contamination risks, but it is clean. We’ve rolled the dice, and have to go this way.

By: margaret brandreth-jones

margaret brandreth-jones — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:04:20 +0000

investment in new power sources….

By: acko

acko — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:01:31 +0000

jon knows the time, and it aint a quarter to nine.

By: Ray Turner

Ray Turner — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:06:22 +0000

In the context of private pensions and endowment policies failing to perform for customers of the Financial Sector, I see the huge salaries and bonuses in the City as a form of embezzlement…

Madoff has been sentenced in the USA.

Some British Bankers need to be banged-up too…

By: phil dicks

phil dicks — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:39:25 +0000

Does anyone remember Mrs.T.’s mantra: Housekeeping, balancing-the-budget and so forth…I must be getting old in my old age, but wasn’t life simple then, before the effects of…er…Mrs.T’s housekeeping/balancing-the-budget/etc…

By: FT.com | Newsblog | More on Walker

FT.com | Newsblog | More on Walker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:35:23 +0000

[...] 4’s John Snow has weighed into the debate as well, questioning whether banks can really change their greedy [...]

By: Kes

Kes — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:54:32 +0000

Jon, I believe that your request for information could not be granted as, under EU law, such would breach the rights of certain individuals. You won’t get far asking for details of a lot of criminals for similar reasons.

Also, I am told that a fair number of applications are deemed “unlikely to succeed” way before they get to the formal application stage, so do not appear in the rejection statistics.

The risk management in banks has been lamentable for many years. The head of risk at a global bank once told me that “we have invested over 200 million dollars in computer power and the best brains to run it, so we’re all right.” I am certain that the possession of computer power became a substitute for thought in an environment where financial “technology” was changing as fast as it’s IT support technonolgy.

I am quite optimistic that we are unlikely to return to the same old “system”. What concerns me more is that we will destroy an industry vital to our national economic viability. Make no mistake, the overwhelming majority of bankers are not the villains currently portrayed. That view is simplistic sound biting and totally unhelpful.

That said, we clearly need a simple separation of retail and commercial banking from investment banking, which will always carry high risk. This is easy to achieve and will be the only basis for a recovery in the flow of credit.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:32:10 +0000

The last year has shown these people know absolutely nothing about anything. You would have had better care taken of your money by giving to the bloke down the road on benefits, and told him to put it on what horse he has picked out the Racing Post,the next time he is in the bookies.

By: Saltaire Sam

Saltaire Sam — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:13:31 +0000

I just can’t stand the complacency and arrogance of the people in the city and in parliament, who seem to have done nothing since the taxpayers dug them out of the mess they created.

Lots of fine words but very little action – still huge salaries and bonuses and still the same old same practises got us into the mess. No doubt there are still the same non-exec pals (probably including MPs) picking up big cheques for the odd day here and there (plus expenses, of course) as long as they don’t rock the boat.

And now our MPs are going on holiday (sorry, back to work in their constituencies) until October! Meanwhile the rest of us keep plugging away for peanuts (if we are lucky enough to have jobs).

A plague on all their houses

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:55:03 +0000

Jon
I think you should do some research on who owns the Reserve Banks, the real role of Goldman Sachs in the current (and previous) financial crises, the role of the Rothschilds in the global financial and political systems. Start digging and reporting on the pillars of our capitalist structures not the facades. We need transparency then we can create real change.