This is how the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, writing in the wake of the accusations of fraud levelled against Goldman Sachs, concluded a recent article:
"For the fact is that much of the financial industry has become a racket — a game in which a handful of people are lavishly paid to mislead and exploit consumers and investors. And if we don’t lower the boom on these practices, the racket will just go on."
That's about right, isn't it?
It probably requires a Nobel Prize-winning economist to understand the ways and works of banks these days.
ReplyDeleteBut it did always seem to me that the sub-prime lark was just that - a game played by bankers. All that slicing up into yet smaller dollops and selling on to each other.
Should they be let loose without minders?
Which raises the question: what sort of person is attracted to these nether reaches of the financial industry? Obviously someone who is very clever indeed but with few if any moral scruples. Virtually a member of the criminal classes, in my view.
ReplyDeleteYOU might say that, tho I could not possibly ..... etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteThe incredible thing, just like with the thieving MPs, is that 'they' still don't seem to Get It. I have these worrying fears that in fact absolutely no-one on this earth has much moral fibre given the chance to make a fast buck.
Depressed of East Anglia.