When they can pull themselves away from their framed copies of The Sun, the close of the Labour party conference offers the Conservatives some clear choices on economic policy and the banker bonuses.
Despite the Chancellor’s impressive deal with Britain’s top five banks, there are senior voices in the government who wanted to go much further.
The banks will expect that the government will get off their backs, now that the changes to bonus arrangements will apply for this year.
However today’s deal puts no limit on the total bonus pot.
And come January and February, near record bonuses will still be announced, against a backdrop of still-rising unemployment and talks of cuts to public sector jobs and pay.
That is why the Tories have a monumental choice on whether to outflank the government on bonus-bashing.
George Osborne previewed a possible approach, talking to Jon earlier in the month:
‘It’s about not paying out megabonuses on the back of taxpayer guarantees and taxpayer support that was there to rebuild bank balance sheets, not to support the pay of bankers.
“I’m signed up to coordinated international action on bonuses to avoid international arbitrage,” he said.
So some populist bonus-bashing, as well as a move to save scarce taxpayers’ money.
Focussing on the taxpayer-supported banks will appease the free marketeers too.
This is not the end of bonus politics.
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If one could only limit the size of the Banks. They are too big to let go bust, so you can never restrict their risk taking.
Or maybe let one go bust? Then send the CEO and his mates to the PPF for their pensions 90% of their due with a cap of £30k p.a. It might encourage the others to pull their horns in.
Seemed right at the time, but with hindsight the worst thing we did was rescue the Banks…
The arrogance of these greedy people and their political connection/inflence beggars belief. All this bank bail out, recession, unemployment, lives of misery, social divide, hatreds, etc, etc, has been caused by these scum.
“Or maybe let one go bust?” One did go bust and it was a disaster.
Within days every government in the world realised that it wasn’t an option. Lehman’s collapse cost considerably more than any bail out would have cost.
Interesting that you say that Ray, I do wonder whether this will become an election issue…
There’s a whole raft of people in banks who need to be sacked. I’m thinking about all those who failed to perform due diligence on loan/credit applications.
I’m also dismayed none of the political parties are looking at the cosy cartel the banks operate when setting the LIBOR rate at which they lend amongst themselves. It’s a bit like drug barons; go into a room, chuck up a few figures, discard the lowest and highest to set the price on the street.
Finally, why are the political parties waiting to intervene on credit card interest rates? The financial services sector is ripping off vulnerable people with interest rates in excess of 20%.
As long as as we as a people refuse to accept that EVERYTHING is an illusion. POLITICS the MONETERY SYSTEM and the MEDIA. You will Understand the Whole FRAUD and DECEPTION and how all this is is all LEGAll. You will begin to understant that it is us who are Responsible because we gave thses Criminals concent to do what they are doing. You will Find the solution JUSTICE under COMMON LAW. When we are ready to ACT.
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