Between Whitehall and the City there is a revolving door of co-dependency
An excellent article from Simon Jenkins. In the UK there is a revolving door between politics and banks. Socialism for the bankers (state hand-outs and soft touch regulation) and capitalism for the rest of us.
Much attention has since focused on the inadequacy of regulation. Sputtering reforms have tried to curb the more outrageous tax dodges, offshore shelters and “London laundromats”. But money has talked: money from Russia, the Gulf, the far east, from anywhere. No one asks why serious regulation never bites.
The answer is that between the City and Westminster there is a revolving door of co-dependency. As we scroll back through the past 20 years, we see a procession of Treasury permanent secretaries passing from Whitehall to commanding heights in the City. Lord Burns goes to chair Santander, Sir Peter Middleton to chair Barclays, Lord Macpherson to chair Hoares. All are of impeccable rectitude. But it is not the actual jobs that matter, rather the knowledge at the back of every Whitehall and Westminster mind that a mile up the road lies a warm refuge in troubled times. Look after the banks and they will look after you. Whitehall grandees do not join the boards of Shelter, Action on Poverty or the RSPB.
The answer is that between the City and Westminster there is a revolving door of co-dependency. As we scroll back through the past 20 years, we see a procession of Treasury permanent secretaries passing from Whitehall to commanding heights in the City. Lord Burns goes to chair Santander, Sir Peter Middleton to chair Barclays, Lord Macpherson to chair Hoares. All are of impeccable rectitude. But it is not the actual jobs that matter, rather the knowledge at the back of every Whitehall and Westminster mind that a mile up the road lies a warm refuge in troubled times. Look after the banks and they will look after you. Whitehall grandees do not join the boards of Shelter, Action on Poverty or the RSPB.
3 comments:
“ for the bankers (state hand-outs and soft touch regulation) ”
Yo moron... they periodically put $100Bs of reserve assets on the banks “to lend out” and instantaneously make them all insolvent...
It's not just politicioans whose brains are controlled by bankers: it's economists as well.
A nice example of that is the fact that if you Google "fractional reserve" and "fraud" you'll find a good FIFTY articles explaining why the existing bank system is fundamentally fraudulent. Indeed, I set out my own very brief explanation here:
https://fractionalreserveisnonsense.weebly.com/
But the main official UK government response to the 2007 bank crisis, the so called Vickers Report (cobbled together by a committee of top economists) does not so much as mention the word "fraud".
Reason of course is that leading economists are a collection of old duffers with nothing between their ears, and whose brains are easily controlled by bankers. Those economsits are as much part of the corrupt establishment as are bankers: they all send their children to the same private schools and socialise at the same cocktail parties.
If it was fraud they would all be arrested for fraud...
Post a Comment