From the FT this morning:
A former investment banker is considering a bid to lead the Treasury select committee, promising to end “banker-bashing” and to protect indebted households as the economy recovers.
Mark Garnier, a former associate director at Bear Stearns and then a hedge fund manager, is testing whether he has enough support to run against Andrew Tyrie, who has led the cross-party committee for the past five years. He will formally announce his candidature if enough MPs back him.
You couldn't make its brazenness up.
I guess that and the sheer effrontery of Garnier's belief that this might be acceptable is what makes this so repugnant.
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There are brass necks a plenty, ‘let’s keep the unregulated, greed fest going’ it’s no wonder the financial industry is so corrupt, too much money and not enough accountability. Until they start sending some of these guys to jail for 20 or 30 years than nothing will change. For once the US have the right idea as regards white collar crime.
I’d say that Iceland, not the US, has the right idea. It has jailed some of the top former management of their banks.
In the US, as in the UK, the top management of banks are treated as immune from prosecution. The only “remedies” sought for illegal conduct are fines the bank, and promises not to do it again. Which is no deterrent; and penalizes the wrong target: the shareholders, who don’t usually control the bank’s management.
(The US may well punish other categories of white-collar crime more heavily than the UK. Though their criminal justice system is now based on ridiculously high basic sentences for most crimes, which can then be reduced by plea-bargaining. Making it harder to identify normal sentences.)
Why does Andrew Tyrie need replacing?
Is there a hidden agenda? Is it something to do with the fact he won’t rein in Margaret Hodge?
Mark Garnier will do what he is best at cover up and concealment.
The last thing he will do is protect indebted households. Unless the “protection” they seek is being forced to relinquish their property and thrown on to the street!
“Protect indebted households” -Ye Gods, first they create the indebtedness and then say we’ll protect you from it! Like drug dealers offering you support with rehab. Surely a piss-taker?
“Protect indebted households” -Ye Gods, first they create the indebtedness and then say we’ll protect you from it! Like drug dealers offering you support with rehab. Surely a piss-taker?
And this on the day fines have been levied (again) on some of the biggest names in banking for rigging the FX market. Finally, at least if the people (one of them a criminal litigation lawyer) they had on the Today program are concerned, opinion is coming round to Richard’s view that just levying fines won’t work; individuals have to be held accountable and severely punished.
In light of this, why would any reasonable person oppose ‘banker bashing’? We need a lot more of it, not less.
Nobody elected this fool to spout his neoliberalism. It is an affront to democracy.
I think you will find they did elect him.
I’m not sure this is true Fiona.
Otherwise, why would Richard write this post if this person was elected? Surely if he were elected, he would have just as much right to run for this position as any other MP.
Either you’re right or Richard’s right, and candidly, my money’s on Richard.
He is an MP
He can stand
It would be a disaster if he won
I’dimagine that the people of Wyre Forest voted for him to represent their best interests in parliament, opposed to looking after his chums in the city of London .
What a bunch of schmucks!
Is he an independent voice? “What troubles me is these chief executives are going in to do a specific job for which they are being offered a sum of money – and they are absolutely the solution to the problem, taken on to resolve the issues the banks have, and offered a large amount of money by the board because they are the best in the world,” he said.” FT 9th March 2015.
“Bob Diamond’s light grilling by MPs makes case for proper banking inquiry”, Guardian, 8 Jul 2012. Mark Garnier had a career as a City fund manager [ex Barclays].
“we have no need to attract ‘dog-end voters in the outlying regions’” — Mark Garnier (Guardian 2 Dec 2014).
The Tory party is becoming nastier in its approach, I guess it has to to get through its extreme programmes.
You will notice that the Tories have come out guns blazing…
Teresa May roughing up the police.
David Cameron’s creepy statement about it not being enough to observe the law, which prompted Glen Greenwald’s comments
IDS being encouraged to get to work on the benefit claimants – to push up the suicide rate to get rid of them.
Expect no treat lists for the elderly to save money
Vaccinations or else for new borns (Look at USA and Australia for the lead here) to cull the weakest.
The list goes on.
You may say I’m a conspiracy theorist….all I can say in my defence is keep your eyes open and listen very carefully to the statements that the Tory Government make during the next few weeks and months.
One short word describes this all and that is “evil”!
Why is it that those at the bottom of society continue to pay the highest price?
http://rt.com/uk/260725-cameron-criminalize-illegal-migrants/
@ Theremustbeanotherway
Can you explain how vaccinations will cull the weakest?
“IDS being encouraged to get to work on the benefit claimants — to push up the suicide rate to get rid of them”
Such nonsense does not stimulate rational debate I’m afraid.
If only it was nonsense
FT reports that US is getting tougher on repeat offenders. In the past there have been agreements which included promises “not to commit future wrongdoing for a certain period of time”! You could not, indeed, make it up.
There is a case for letting someone with the knowledge of working on the inside assist in stopping the abuse, as the FBI use fraudsters to assist them. The key is have them advise not lead.
On the other hand let us not forget being an investment banker does not make you a criminal or unethical as not all are guilty of abuse. You cannot blame a whole sector for the crimes of a few, I am assuming this is what he meant be “Banker bashing”.
Can we be shared the ‘rotten apples’ theory?
This was systemic
Agreed Richard the behaviour was systemic. They seem to read off a set of DNA-like scripts in order to be a member of the group and gain the benefits of that behavior. A recent example from the FT is ‘If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying’.
If you do not effectively regulate and control bankers they turn into crooks. Always. The rewards are quite simply too high. If you have reason to believe that some of them are saints then share, please
As it seems that the UK gets much of its revenue from taxes on these banks activities, we the UK could be accused of living off immoral earnings ie Taxing financial pimps and prostitutes.
I’m not sure we tax the second
Problem is that, after the foxes have ‘helped’, they then return to their lairs to benefit from the ‘fixes’.
“Expect no treat lists for the elderly to save money”
Already being done old chap.
Joint replacements have been on the down for several years.
Noted the other day that a higher percentage of elderly people voted conservative than other age groups.
Turkeys DO vote for christmas !!
“Can you explain how vaccinations will cull the weakest”
Depends whether they are being vaccinated against, or injected with, does it not?
“You may say I’m a conspiracy theorist…. All I can say in my defence is keep your eyes open and listen very carefully to the statements that the Tory Government make during the next few weeks and months”
I’ve listened for years to call-me-dave and her speeches: All I hear is UP YOURS repeated over and over…
We now have several generations of directors and management in the City, all those who have come up through the business in the last 20-30 years, who have utterly lost any sense of right or wrong, as it would be seen by the wider public. During the 90s, most of the older, traditional bank managers who had been brought up in a very different world were cleared out as they were seen to be blocking progress. I saw it first hand.
Regulation is just seen as something to be ‘gamed’ and in this world regulation is ultimately futile. No amount of regulation will solve a problem of deeply flawed ethics with no sense of accountability. As said before, this is about the spirit rather than the letter of the law, and the finest or rather most expensive lawyers and accountants are employed to find wormhole in the letter
The tone really is set from the top – its is made clear that to get on you do whatever you need to do to achieve the targets and you will be hugely rewarded and promoted if you succeed. Like trying to convict murderous dictators in court, it is rare to find an audit trail that reveals a specific instruction. Senior management and leadership just does not work like that
The answers have to include some combination of:
– very heavy fines for the directors and senior managers of organisations. Equivalent to multiple years of incomes
– convictions and jail sentences both for those directly responsible and their management
– long term or life time bans from working in financial services. It is a farce how they get re-employed – they are not seen as having done anything wrong by their peers, they just got caught
– tough, investigative, pro-active independent, audit functions who provide continuous oversight, or at least unannounced investigations. They cannot be trusted to do it themselves – and neither can their auditors
And perhaps the influx of a new generation of directors and managers from other sectors, including the civil service who might bring in a different culture and change the rotten culture that exists today. It has not gone away.
But sadly, as long as the City has the Conservatives firmly held by their financial gonads, they will not take serious action. If anything the opposite. The Andrew Tyries are I fear in the minority
Agreed
I love the way that the BoE lets the banks lend at near zero rates and showers them will hundreds of billions of pounds in reserves to help prop them up, yet we ask: “If it’s not too much trouble, could you see your way clear to lend a teensy-weensy bit of that money into the real economy in order to create jobs and build infrastructure….if you wouldn’t mind?”
Why have no conditions ever been attached to this government generosity? Why are they allowed to take thsi money and basically do what they want with it?
So where does one put in the efforts to try and push this? Positive Money?… Others…? Not sure any of the current parties are really on the case. And it needs people who understand banking from the inside
I am afraid I still think Positive Money have this wrong: their view of removing money creation from banks just will not work in my opinion
Indeed – they are a bit obsessed with that one aspect. But who else…