Credit Crunch

I have just been watching the Dispatches programme on Channel 4. Will Hutton explained in layman's terms just how the financial crisis of today actually developed. It did not tell us anything that we did not know already but it did put more flesh on the skeleton and set things out chronologically. What was absolutely staggering yet again was the extent of incompetence and ignorance about what was going on. Here were these financiers - at all levels from CEO to rookie trader - gambling away on a massive scale with our money in order to make themselves absolutely grotesque amounts of money. And yet only a tiny number even suggested that the whole monstrous excess was built on piles of sand. These people, whose greed for more wealth knew no bounds believed that they were so clever that they deserved to be paid sums of money beyond the wildest dreams of ordinary people. And yet, they could not see that their collateralized debt obligations [CDOs] and bizarre financial schemes were based on valueless assets the nature of which had been lost in the swirling merry-go-round that pumped up the bubble of international debt. Orchestrated from Wall Street, at the centre of it all was the City of London, with its almost totally unregulated markets. Here the gamblers could do as they liked and the regulators not only did nothing to stop them but appeared to be totally ignorant of what was going on. How could so many so called experts just say that they did not really understand and that they thought that everything would be OK. Strings of people who were earning $1 million salaries and hardly a one ready to say "Stop!" As long as the money kept pouring into their bank accounts, the truth is that they did not care. It was quite apparent that they despised the ordinary punters on ordinary wages, who ultimately would be asked to bail them out.

But what is being done to absolutely stop it happening again and also, to crush the level of obscene salaries and bonuses? No way should people earning $35,000 per year be asked to provide the resources to let these people carry on pocketing huge payments with no responsibility for the losses. Again, I ask, what is being done? Can anyone give an answer?