Let's all be beastly to the bankers

What have our leaders got against bankers? It seems that bankers are to be singled out for salary restrictions? Leaving aside footballers, who at the top level are paid obscene amounts, and pop stars, why do the critics single out bankers? Why not senior civil servants who receive annual bonuses despite poor performance in their departments, and why not senior staff at the BBC? Both these groups are paid directly by the tax payer!

This morning I even heard the Chancellor expressing concern to Evan Davies about the bonuses because the bankers brought about the recession! There may be an element of truth in this, but governments are equally to blame - President Clinton ended the Glass-Steagall amendment after 60 years and enabled the confusion of different sorts of banking. He also pushed lenders hard to grant mortgages to lower income groups who could not afford them, - the impetus to the development of junk paper which brought down the system. And why not blame the almighty regulators who took their eyes off the ball? It was obvious that by borrowing from the market to make loans, - borrowing short to lend long, was extremely risky.

In our own country G.Brown built up a debt mountain in both the public and private sectors which has had a profound impact on our economy.

Ah, but they, the bankers, bought the junk paper greedily. That's true, they ought to have shown more diligence, but neither shareholders nor regulators seemed to notice their carelessness.

Having studied annual company reports over many years, it used to surprise how much space was devoted to remuneration. I quickly saw that directors, in league with institutional shareholders, were paying themselves too much - in all sorts of companies. There is a strong case to make all directors more answerable to shareholders, but why single out the bankers?

What will be the result of any clamp down, by Brown/Darling or by Osborne?

1) Loss of staff and expertise to other countries where returns are higher

2) Payments in other ways - banks paying for goodies such as personal pensions, cars and petrol, use of bank's helicopter or aeroplane, holidays overseas in bank-owned apartments, etc, etc.

1) and 2) are obviously connected, and represent two answers to the same problem.