Out with the money changers!

Most of us are familiar with the money changers being summarily thrown out of the temple, as described in the New Testament. This current episode of the goings-on of greedy money changers has only one aspect different. Instead of God's House being defiled, it is our own country that has been defiled. However, the results are not too dissimilar.

The Daily Mail had a good headline today. As I went into my local newsagent this afternoon, it was staring up at me from the rack. It screamed at me about bonuses. We have been forced to hand over £37 billion to bankers who have been inept, injudicious and ill-informed. They, in turn, gobbled up £17 billion in bonuses last year.

Now what sort of business loses money, other peoples money, and still has the affrontery to claim justification for such arrant greed?

Gordon Brown is a man with a large vocabulary in his body language. Recently he has taken to impersonating a toothless man attempting to chew gum when confronted with difficult questions. When asked why these people should not repay their bonuses for the good of the nation he simply took on this new aspect of body talk. Again, when asked if anyone was going to be investigated for possible criminal activity (as in the US), he repeated the impersonation.

If these bankers had an ounce of moral fibre they would hand back SOME of this largesse. However, what we find is the sort of behaviour like that of Sir Fred Goodwin, lately of RBS, pleading well into the early hours for his cup to runneth over even now. Some knight!

In all my disgust at their behaviour, I agreed with someone this morning who said, on the radio, that the banks were not wholly to blame. We as borrowers could have said NO. That is very true. However, whilst personal responsibility is usually limited to within the family, corporate responsibility goes much wider.

By taking in the toxic loans, repackaging them, and flogging them off to the next fall guy in the pack, they have destroyed the financial system as we know it. They may not be crooks as a judge would know them, but they have been judged crooks by the outside world.