A world financial crisis followed by civil unrest begs the question: What next? World Governments have bailed out the Banks and the Car Industry to prevent financial meltdown, and now the People say: "What about us"! World-wide, millions have lost their jobs and are seeking relief from the deprivation of a recession that was not their fault. Strikes and demonstrations are hitting more and more countries, and its spreading like wildfire, but what should be done about it?
There is some justification in what people are saying, insofar as the architects of the crisis are still sitting in their Wall Street and London offices (among others), getting their bloated salaries and bonuses while people on the street are losing their homes and having to tighten belts.
The whole crisis was caused by greed and mismanagement on the part of the Banks Fat Cats, who were so intent on buying up the competition they forgot to keep an eye on the petty cash. So why do they still have their jobs, let alone their huge bonuses?
It is a disgrace of world proportions that tax payers money has been used to pay these incompetants obscenely inflated bonuses for crass stupidity.
As an example, at a time when the Banks were being bailed out by the Government to the tune of billions of dollars, the leaders of these institutions were paying out billions in bonuses to their employees. One London based Company C.E.O approved payment of four billion to its workers at the same time he was receiving untold billions from the Government to keep the Company afloat.
The idea of paying your successful staff a large bonus was introduced to reward those workers who performed their function in an exemplary fashion and brought in huge profits. Over the years, this has been corrupted to mean that any Tom, Dick or Harry will get a bonus even when he is a major failure. Look at the past few years, where some C.E.O's have been given severance pay of over €150,000,000 when forced to resign after some major cock up.
It is despicable that these people continue to get their huge handouts when their Banks/Companies are on the verge of bankruptcy and have to be bailed out by the Government, and by that I mean of course the Tax Payer.
Leaders from many countries have echoed the words of Gorden Brown of Britain when he complained that after the bank bailout, the banks were still refusing to start lending money again, or even pass on the full interest rate cuts made by the Bank of England, the World Bank and the American Treasury among others.
So you see, there is some justification for the general unrest that is happening all over the world, even if the protests are not being channeled in the right direction.
Civil unrest is now being aimed in various forms at Governments because that is where ordinary people lay the blame when times get hard, but what they should be pushing for is responsible management of our monetary system by the Banks, and in particular the Leaders of these institutions.
Bonuses are fine in the banking industry, but they should be brought down to a reasonable level, say €10,000 for a successful employee, and perhaps €100,000 for a good C.E.O. not €1,000,000 and €100,000,000. That is ridiculous. Why should anyone, no matter how successful, earn more in one day than the average man in 10,000 years. Its not just ridiculous, its obscene!
If you fail in your job you should be kicked out on your ear without any bonus at all. Failure should not be rewarded at any price!
If the general public start seeing heads roll in the Financial Sector it may help to calm the tumult in the market place, at least it would be a start, and may head off total anarchy!
Keep your powder dry!
Roy
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