No Rewards for Failure

This week we learned that the proposals to curb pay in the City of London have been watered down and, at the same time, the FSA says that controlling pay in the financial sector is nothing to do with them, it is down to the government. So nothing happens and pay rates are rising back to the astronomical levels that have been enjoyed for years. Now we are told that RBS is splashing out £10m to hire two "senior bankers", one of whom will be a "star trader" with a "guaranteed bonus" in the first year of £7m. The Boss of RBS, Stephen Hester [himself in line for pay of £9m per year] says that the bank will be prepared to pay the market rate for banking talent. An RBS spokesperson said that there were no rewards for failure. Oh no! These people never will get it. No one is worth pay at this level. Their pay is absolutely ludicrous. I don't care if they do work long hours, what they are doing does not deserve pay levels beyond all reason. These people believe that [a] they are worth daft amounts of money for their expertise in gambling and [b] they have such an inflated idea of their own importance that they cannot conceive that their pay rates bear no connection with either their real importance or their level of expertise. We know how good they are from our experience of the financial melt down that is costing the rest of us income, jobs and increased taxes. It has got to stop. I don't care how any government does it but there has to be an agreement between all governments in the Western World to clamp down on this excess.

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