Moral Hazard Caused By Bailing Out The Banks And Fred Goodwin Etc.

[SHERWICK]

We created a monster by bailing out the banks & Fred Goodwin - now anytime anything in the public sector is to be cut, e.g. pensions, people correctly say, "well if we can afford to give Fred Goodwin £400k a year pension for bankrupting a ban, then why can't I receive a much more modest pension when I haven't bankrupted anything?".

Also, the fact that there isn't any money to pay public sector pensions doesn't matter because there wasn't any money to pay Fred Goodwin's pension either... until the government magically created the money - so why can't the government now magically create money to pay public sector pensions?

Also, have heard the same argument used for Tube strikes and every other cut - i.e. if the bankers can be saved, why cant' we?

And, even though we have no money left, they all have a very valid point.

And no politician dares to say the truth, which is, ACCORDING TO THEM, saving Fred Goodwin and the banks was more important than saving anything or anyone else.

[R K]

Yep.

Tories first step needs to be to stop paying pensions to the criminals, put the SFO into HBOS and RBS, Northern Rock et al and then when they're all behind bars start talking about cuts.

Instead they've appointed Stephen Green as trade minister.

So it's pretty clear they endorse theft by the rich and cuts for the poor.

May as well join in.

[eek]

Instead they've appointed Stephen Green as trade minister.

Thats hardly fair. HSBC did not get into any of the mess the other banks found themselves in and ran away from HBOS when they saw what it really was like.

Stephen is about the only banker who is without (obvious) sin bar the general one of working for a bank.

[Riedquat]

Well, the obvious reason is that they like to suck up to the rich and powerful and don't give a damn about anyone else, but also bailing out a small number of individuals costs relatively little in the overall scheme of things compared to paying less to millions. Finally, paying the likes of Fred Goodwin doesn't mean that everyone else should've got something, it means that he shouldn't have got anything either - a small but important difference IMO.