Following the gentle fines on Barclays Bank for its sustained manipulation of LIBOR interest rates, I have submitted an e-petition to government for a judicial public inquiry, which is already up on the government website and ready for signing – click here to access it. I hope that readers and followers who share my view that a full-scale […]
Posts Tagged ‘Bankers’
Greek Apocalypse Now? Not quite
May 21st, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Robert Chote, the OBR chair, is normally a serious and measured man, but to say, as he did, that the UK would suffer ‘irreparable damage’ from a Greek default or that the UK ‘may never recover’ is grossly overdoing it – more reminiscent of the saloon bar than the forum of the Government’s leading economic advisers. […]
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Regulatory backlash against bankers’ pay – you bet!
Apr 19th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.So even the tin ears in the City are now railing against excessive pay at the top. A study by Share Centre found that 95% of institutional investors now believe pay is too high across all leading companies, not just the banks. Very observant of them. The real question is what should be done about […]
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Yes they’re all in it together
Apr 16th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.It’s a relief that even a City investor group (PIRC) is now challenging the accounts of Barclays, RBS, and HSBC, initially when the pay deal for Bob (greedy as Croesus) Diamond is put to the Barclays AGM in a fortnight’s time. It is proposed to pay him £17m, largely made up of an executive share […]
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A budget that ignores reality: ideological and macro-economically hollow
Mar 22nd, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.Since 2009 the economy has struggled to recover from the mire of a slump caused by the banking sector. But each time economic activity quickens, it hits a series of buffers. These buffers are well known , but denied by the Chancellor: a vast overhang of private debt now slowly being de-leveraged; a banking sector […]
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Goldman Sachs exposes the whole rotten investment bank ethos
Mar 15th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Perhaps we should be grateful to Goldman Sachs. It is so brazen in its greed and ruthlessness that it exposes the ugly face of capitalism far more crudely than its detractors ever could. Now we have the resignation letter of one of its executive directors, Greg Smith, to confirm from the inside what Goldman is […]
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Iceland puts on trial those responsible for the crash. Why doesn’t Britain?
Mar 12th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Iceland had a spectacular economic collapse in October 2008 which bankrupted the country. This followed two decades in which right-wing governments engaged in an orgy of financial deregulation, launching a bonanza for its bankers with plentiful credit for its citizens, weak financial oversight and an unspoken rule not to ask too many questions but keep […]
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Better to be a banker than on workfare if you do something wrong
Mar 4th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Penalties, as the current bonus season reveals all too clearly, are still a matter of class. If you’re a young person 16-24 on a work experience programme promoted as ‘voluntary’, and you drop out even for good reason, you stood to lose two weeks’ benefit (until the government was forced to back down by public […]
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Barclays, the hypocrite bank, found out
Mar 1st, 2012 by Michael Meacher.So Barclays has now been exposed pursuing two tax avoidance schemes so “highly abusive” that this government, which gets half its donations from mega-wealthy City banks and individuals, felt obliged to take retrospective action to stamp them out. The Barclays wheeze was designed to escape payment of at least £500m in taxes by: (i) avoiding tax […]
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Greece: the explosion of a revolution
Feb 9th, 2012 by David Osler.My next scheduled visit to Athens is only four months away, and I guess the city will still look pretty much the way it did last time I was there, its skyline dominated as ever by the Parthenon and the Acropolis. But in social and political terms, Greece is going to feel very different. Such […]
