How much longer will we ordinary folk have to watch investment bankers stuffing vast amounts of cash into their pockets, while we struggle along with low interest payments on our savings, lose our jobs and struggle to pay the bills? All the while, of course, being on hand to bail out the banks if they get things wrong. Today, we hear that Barclays made £3 billion profit in the first six months of the year, in spite of making an allowance for the doubling of bad debts to £4.56 billion. Most of the profit increase has come from the investment banking arm - which took over chunks of Lehmann Bros last year. Now this is not an American Bank; it is an old established British bank. One of those that cannot be allowed to fail. The 22,000 people who work in the investment banking division will have average pay packets for the first six months of this year of £100,000 each. Not quite on the level of some American investment banks but if things stay like this, they should top £200,000 [$335,000] for the year, which should be enough to keep the wolf from the door. It is still 8 x average UK wages and it must be stopped.
If these investment banks were completely independent and could go bust if they failed, then I would still say that the pay was obscene but if their gambling went wrong, at least they could disappear into the abyss without the rest us offering a penny in assistance or compensation. They could then be perhaps less reckless with other people's money. I don't suppose anything will happen. They will carry on as before. They have no shame. But is it that difficult to set them loose to sink alone?
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