Financial Institutions

Don't you think the financial community (not to be confused with the international community which lives a little further down the road and even further round the bend) has had a very easy time of it in the media recent times? When you hear the periodic cries for a more "business-like" approach to government, "enterprise Great Britain" and so on, it makes one wonder. With their proven track record for disaster, a lethal combination of incompetence and greed, I don't know how anyone can take bankers, financiers, insurers, etc. seriously.

An example of the non-critical nature of press coverage. This weekend, the NYT devoted an article to the ex CEO of Lehman Brothers. The general tone of the article was laudatory, but for goodness sake, the man only left the bank a few months ago. Are we to believe that he had no knowledge of, or connivance in, the incompetence and greed that has steered the company towards bankruptcy? Talk about a steady hand at the till(er).

 

Ancien Régime?

Could it be that what my brother calls the Hard Working Families or HWFs will soon rise up against an exhausted system characterised by privilege? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for privilege but I cannot countenance a system which neglects to include me among the recipients of privilege. There is in fact a programme on this very subject on the M6 television channel this evening. One of the reports focuses on the inordinately large numbers of people working in the cinema and TV who are the sons and daughters of famous people. I suppose this sort of nepotism has always existed but it is now reaching epidemic proportions.

The most ironic touch of all: the programme is presented by Marie Drucker who, for the benefit of my non-French reader, is none other than the daughter of the ex-head of M6!