Banks are seemingly returning to their old ways after having soaked up £38bn of public money in the UK, Barclays and HSBC have reported profits of around £3bn each and are now in the process of paying out huge bonuses again. The taxpayer is left asking 'What have they learned?' and the cynical response is 'They have learned that the Government will bail them out when their greed outruns their value'Astonishing figures have been reported that indicate despite cutting more than 7,500 jobs, Barclays wage bill rose by a staggering 36% to almost £5bn - that by anyone's standard is quite an incredible achievement (and not in a good way). What it really indicates that whilst they have got rid of a mass of lower-paid employees, they have continued to feed the fat cats that got the economy into the state that it is now...
I am sure that banks are firmly of the belief that they are forging ahead in showing that the economy is on the way to recovery whilst the workers continue to swell the ranks of the unemployed and have their homes reposessed. And indeed, it does seem like there is recovery in some financial sectors, but it has been remarked that the 'bonus culture' is here to stay. The danger is that we emerge from this recession with a quite literally 'leaner and meaner' (especially meaner) banking system and a decimated manufacturing base (not that there was much left to be ravaged).
The blame for letting the banking sector off the hook can be firmly laid at the feet of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he is guilty of believing that the banking 'leopard' could change it's spots and show remorse for it's rash behaviour - think again Gordon...
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