Even their previous Number 1 fans are demanding the prosecution of the ‘Banksters’

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Even their previous Number 1 fans are demanding the prosecution of the ‘Banksters’

July 26th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Ruth Sunderland

PUBLISHED:

14:46 EST, 25 July 2012

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UPDATED:

14:46 EST, 25 July 2012

When the Economist magazine starts using terms such as ‘Banksters’ and the Financial Times wonders in its editorial column why no-one of significance in the UK has been prosecuted over banking scandals, something serious is afoot.

Neither organ can be regarded as remotely communistic, or even populist – the two accusations normally levelled at those of us who have been talking in these terms for some time.

If these publications, normally cheerleaders for the finance sector, are using such language, then bankers are really in trouble.

Adair Turner gave a strong speech this week in which he questioned why bankers were paid any bonuses at all, let alone the outlandish ones

Lord Adair Turner caught this mood of near-universal disgust in an extraordinarily outspoken speech this week. I say near-universal – the only people who appear not to share in the revulsion are the bankers themselves and their PR lackeys.

The Economist’s use of the term ‘Banksters’, which Turner echoed in his speech, has a historical resonance of which he will be well aware.

It is a coinage that dates back to the Pecora Commission, a series of hearings into the causes of the Wall Street crash of 1929.

Those hearings, led by lawyer Ferdinand Pecora, were public eviscerations of the leading bankers of the day that made the appearance of Bob Diamond in front of MPs look genteel.

They led to the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act that separated casino banking from the humdrum retail variant, a piece of legislation that ran to only a few pages, in stark comparison with the thousands of pages of Basel capital regulations spawned these days.

Yet in the five decades during which Glass-Steagall held sway, there were no systemic bank collapses and many observers blame the dismantling of the rules by President Clinton as a key cause of the financial crisis.

Turner’s speech came shortly after a review of short-termism by Professor John Kay in which that distinguished economist voiced a view shared by many ordinary people that was previously seen as rank heresy in financial circles.

Kay questioned why bankers were paid any bonuses at all, let alone the outlandish ones awarded to Diamond et al, when so many talented people undertake demanding jobs without any such incentive, including surgeons, police officers and dare I add, journalists.

Underlying the thoughts of Turner and Kay is the ethical deficit in banks that has come into sharp relief in the recent series of scandals including Libor rate-rigging, money laundering at HSBC and consumer rip-offs.

A major factor in these debacles is that many of the key players in the dark recesses where complex products are concocted have no direct contact at all with the customers who lose their shirts. Their remoteness makes it easier for them to be blind to the consequences of their actions and to conduct their affairs based only on maximum gain for themselves.

Serious: The Financial Times wonders in its editorial column why no-one of significance in the UK has been prosecuted over banking scandals

The banking system is deeply dysfunctional and its gangster capitalism is exacting a toll on the economy we can ill afford, at a time when we have sunk into the longest double-dip recession for more than half a century.

Reforms must include a return to the Glass-Steagall principle, so that the taxpayer is no longer forced to underwrite the banksters.

Even veteran US banker Sandy Weill, who former Citigroup panjandrum and architect of the modern mega-bank, has undergone a Damascene conversion, and is now advocating exactly that.

As for Lord Turner, he is clearly pitching to become the next governor of the Bank of England. If he succeeds, we must hope he pursues his crusade against the banksters to its logical conclusion.