Bankers Bonuses – Do they deserve it?

By admin on March 17, 2010 • ( 0 )

I remember interviewing Rev Jesse Jackson back in Oct 2008. The Rev Jackson was on-route to India and encouraging Equanomics through the Rainbow Alliance. He was due back in December 2008 to lead a demonstration on Wall Street to help demand fairer terms for people who had been leant money and were in imminent danger of having their homes repossessed. The Reverend said something interesting. He suggested that creativity seemed to be alluding the Bankers all of a sudden. Where is the creativity they (the bankers) demonstrated when initially lending money, especially to vulnerable people ?

In recent years we have seen the Banking crisis being averted by governments propping them up with Public money. In return very little can be seen as awarded to us, Joe and Jane Public.

Back in the 1980s, Endowment mortgages were all the rage. Unfortunately, 25+ years later the vast majority of these schemes have resulted in a short fall of their potential. Instead, another industry grew-up where endowments could be sold, leaving the public with losses. Frustratingly, the bankers who created such schemes or brokers who sold them probably still got paid their bonuses. Bonuses for doing a bad job!?

It does appear wrong that a bank can record a profit based on an external cash injection and still award a set of high bonuses to its staff. There needs to be more transparency as to who is being paid and what. NB In most industries, for example Teaching, there is public awareness of pay scales and performance targets. Are the bankers immune. Or, should we accept that to retain them we need to pay them more?

A good article from the BBC news portal, implies that bankers bonuses are:

free market driven across the world. Unless the politicians globally get together and find a solution that gives bankers fair and reasonable pay for the work put in, makes the global financial system more stable and reduces the risk of another crash – then its all going to happen again one day.

Maybe we need more creative people like the Rev Jesse Jackson to suggest lateral thoughts to change how banking works. The politicians appear to be strangely silent, especially in the UK where the expenses scandal continues.

What is fascinating is the following graph:

It appears that if we stay out of wars and quickly jail greedy bankers, we could dramatically change the face of our global economy for good.