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I don’t like banks. Nor do I like politicians. One of the reasons I don’t like them, is that they treat us, the little working men as stupid creatures. They have always done this, and  apparently, they still continue doing this. How else can one explain the way bankers are treating themselves in paying out some bonusses? Today, the British Minister of Finances, Mr. Alistair Darling, is explaining in the Sunday Telegraph that his department is going to start an investigation around the way the banks are being managed, including as well the bonuses which are being paid in the bank sector. Finally! Not only in the United Kingdom, but around the world, very big banks have asked their governments to help them out with tax payers money. This was done in the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, Iceland, United Kingdom, etc… all over the world.

In today’s edition of the Sunday Telegraph, Mr. Darling makes quite some good remarks:

I know people feel angry about excessive bank bonuses. And directors have a duty to ensure that their banks behave responsibly. People who work hard should be rewarded for their effort. But it would be wrong to reward people whose excessive risk-taking brought the banks down, causing misery to millions of their customers. Success should be rewarded. Failure should not.

People rightly ask questions about bank failures. But questions should have been asked earlier, especially in banks’ boardrooms, when banks seemed to be so successful. Why were some directors so taken aback when the banks for which they were responsible came to grief?

In today’s interconnected financial system, we need to see far more responsibility from banks in every country. By supporting our economy and removing uncertainty from our banking system, we are helping other countries too. So just as last autumn’s recapitalisation and fiscal stimulus were followed around the world, we want to see other countries taking action to support bank lending.

These are very nice words, and as a matter of fact, the whole article Mr. Darling wrote consists of very nice words. You can read them all over here.

But… the bankers don’t seem to live in today’s reality. The Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the major players in the world, was rescued only months ago with a total amount of £ 20 billion (20.000.000.000,- Pound Sterling) of tax payers money. They are now proposing to pay out their staff a total amount of £ 1 billion in bonuses.

I consider it a fraud if bankers pay themselves huge real money bonuses from fake profits. One of the questions that has not been answered yet (and I honestly doubt it wether it’s going to be answered) is why Governments all around the world are using taxpayers’ money to support these kind of fraudsters?

But then again, banks, amongst other big companies are just continuing to make a joke out of the normal taxpayers:

• Wells Fargo, a huge American company was given 25 billion US dollars from the American Government, and is now planning to organise a couple of luxury trips for their collaborators to luxury resorts in Las Vegas. They call them “bonus incentives”.
• ABC made a program how the Bank of America, after having received 45 billion US $ from the American Government, was sponsoring a 5 day fair just outside the Superbowl stadium in Tampa last week.
• Morgan Stanley received 10 billion US $, and organised a three day convention in The Breakers on Palm Beach. I just made a search on the internet, and the cheapest room I could book for this month was at a price of $ 630,00 - 1 night! Morgan Stanley was also planning to send his collaborators on incentive trips to Monte Carlo and the Bahamas, but as the press found out, these plans have now been cancelled.
• The New York Post revealed earlier this month that Sandy Weill, the ex-CEO of Citygroup, used a company private jet to spend the Christmas period together with his family in a luxery resort in San José del Cabo, Mexico. This holiday costed 12.000 US $. Per night! Yes, you read it well: per night! He didn’t care that his company had sacked 50.000 collaborators worldwide, and had been given 50 billion US $ from the Government in order to survive!

I hope you will understand now why I don’t like banks and politicians. Oh, and by the way, the Correo da Manhã, the popular Portuguese newspaper is revealing today that the total amount in commissions being paid out in the Freeport scandal has now risen to 8 million euros.

The story just continues…

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