bankers by name, bankers by nature
With current RBS Chairman Philip Hampton finally admitting earlier this month that it was highly unlikely that we, the public, will ever get our money back from the £45bn bailout of the bank, it’s time to admit defeat and accept that the bankers have got away with it. After the worldwide crash of 2008, largely caused by the perverse and corrupt sub-prime banking practices, we were wrong to assume there would be some form of radical shake-up. On Wall Street and the City alike, nothing has changed. Even Philip Hampton himself has confessed to being mortified that both his peers and employees are still demanding huge bonuses and cites one recent example of a petulant executive stropping off in a huff after not being awarded a £4m bonus as ‘his counterpart at Lazard’s was on at least £6m!’
A self-styled and self-sustaining oligopoly of bankers continues to set both its own rewards and, more worryingly, its own modus operandii and we, the taxpayers, underwrite the whole risky shebang. For the banking industry, it’s business as usual.
However, as a perfect antidote to my political, commercial and royal cynicism, step forward Jose Mujica, Uruguay’s most humble of presidents. Jose lives in a dilapidated one-bedroom farmhouse, drives an aged VW Golf, donates 90% of his salary to charity, and has turned the presidential palace into a homeless shelter. Having been shot by police six times and spending 14 years in jail – including two in solitary confinement in a well – he states his lifestyle is a consequence of his wounds and his experiences, and his distaste for excess consumption & accumulation is legendary. What a top-boy!
