Bank Bosses and Bonus Culture

The BBC has reported today that former banking bosses have apologised unreservedly for their part in the economic crisis.

Former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Fred Goodwin told the Treasury Committee that he “could not be more sorry” for the failure of the banks. He, and other former bank chiefs, also admitted that the bonus culture had contributed to the crisis and needed to be reviewed.

However, in the same BBC report, Sir Fred came out with the line that if bankers felt they weren’t paid enough, they would leave.

That is a pretty low and irreponsible excuse in the midst of a gushing apology.

Sir Fred’s salary is £1.46 million a year. Isn’t there enough job satisfaction in that?  And just where, if they don’t think a salary of hundreds of thousands of pounds is enough, do these bosses think bankers will go if they are not paid the bonuses that bring this country to its knees?

Maybe, and this is just a long shot, they might actually spend time thinking about other things besides their next cash fix.  

The Times They Are A-Changing

Today is a day for the history books.

The world is about to get its first openly gay head of state.

Icelend's Johanna Sigurdardottir breaks all the moulds. She is a woman. She is 66. She is a Social Democrat. She is glamourous. She is openly gay and in a civil partnership. She has two grown-up children. She is popular, having been dubbed "Saint Johanna" - according to a report on page three of today's Independent - and hailed as an "unexpected but brilliant" choice to take her party's centre stage.

This is one progression to have emerged out of the global economic crisis.

The Economic Crisis

I have always thought the cultural phenomenon of house buying was at the heart of this credit crisis and so I listened with particular interest to Alison Gelder, Chief Executive of Housing Justice, who was one of the key speakers at yesterday's CTBI Conference at Methodist Church House in London.

This year 75,000 mortgage repossessions are expected in Britain. We need more housing to be built, but because of the downturn, the government's housing target will not be met. So there needs to be other solutions.

I was happy to hear that one of the possibilities Alison suggested was the removal of the stigma of home renting as a "looser's option". Why do the British think this? On the continent, renting is the norm. Considering how costly mortgage holding is, why do so many want to walk around proudly declaring themselves as "mortgage slaves"?

I think a change in our attitude towards the way we live is also the key towards re-examining our relationships with each other, which was a point raised by Paula Clifford, Head of Theology at Christian Aid who also spoke at yesterday's conference.

At the beginning of the second millenium, individualists are keen to define quality of life as the means to live on one's own - and occupy the maximum amount of space while doing so. If we can look at sharing our living space and redefine quality of life while doing so, we may start to get somewhere.