I must admit that deep down, or even not that deep down, I quite enjoy a big bank going down. As a friend put it in the pub last night, there’s something about a man in a thousand pound suit carrying a cardboard box away from his desk that brings a smile to the face {newspaper caption on one of these described the contents of the box as ‘his’ possessions. They’ll be lucky, his face said one thing… ‘I’ve been a’looting in accounting’}.
It is sad when people lose their jobs, so it isn’t that which stimulates the mirth, it’s the suit rather than the man. A friend on the bus was remembering when her friends in New York told her she was crazy to work in the arts as they’d got a job for life at Lehman Bros… It’s the hubris.
What can we glean from this;
1) This is a chance to imagine the replacement of Capitalism with something better, ranging from better, non-fraudulent Capitalism to things other than Capitalism. The argument that nothing else works is harder to maintain when employees are literally walking about the Wharf saying “It’s terrible. It’s death. It’s a massive earthquake. Everything’s finished up!” {actually academics predict that these latest events are not very likely to have much effect on the UK economy}.
2) One person who observed that these banks rely upon ridiculous financial breaks in the good times {compared to small businesses} so why should we help them now was told that we shouldn’t apply a moral position to this, that these banks are too big to fail. He actually hadn’t applied a moral position at all, he’d applied logic. These characters are essentially holding a double ransom; restrict our growth in any way during a boom we’ll take our business elsewhere, and if we go bust we’ll take your economy with us. If this is going to be the state of affairs then we should make the liability penal. If you get to a certain size and fail to use the boom the avoid such a collapse then you’re incompetent behind the wheel. Put them in prison for financial vandalism. What is the crime of robbing a bank compared to the crime of collapsing an old one?
