I hate to say I told you so...

TruckerT

... but many commentators are beginning to question the very fundamentals of the economic system(s) which we all seem to want to regard as 'normal' and/or 'indispensable'

But, still, nobody seems to want to 'come out' and require the banks to make a fair and reasonable contribution to the repair costs of the havoc which they created

TruckerT

Thrugelmir

TruckerT wrote: »

But, still, nobody seems to want to 'come out' and require the banks to make a fair and reasonable contribution to the repair costs of the havoc which they created

No one complained when the banks were paying huge tax revenues in the Treasury in the boom years.

TruckerT

Thrugelmir wrote: »

No one complained when the banks were paying huge tax revenues in the Treasury in the boom years.

The hugeness of their tax bills was proportionate to the hugeness of their profits

When the going got 'tough', the governments simply gave it all back

This is not simply a UK problem

TruckerT

grizzly1911

Thrugelmir wrote: »

No one complained when the banks were paying huge tax revenues in the Treasury in the boom years.

That would be the back of PPI/lending profits that they are now writing off and claiming relief against (probably) too?

TruckerT

In the trouble spots of the EU, we still hear/see references to bank 're-capitalisation' or bank 'nationalisation' - if I were Greek, I would prefer to hear words like 'confiscation' or 'elimination'

These parasites are getting richer by the day, because they belong to the same social group as politicians

TruckerT

pqrdef

The UK banks are on life support. Stop propping up the housing market and they're bust.

By the time we get out of all this, most of the banks in Europe will be nationalised.

headcone

Capitalism is dead.

Any system reliant on greed is doomed to failure.

Going4TheDream

headcone wrote: »

Capitalism is dead.

Any system reliant on greed is doomed to failure.

Is what we have though today really Capitalism?

In its true form, banks would have been left to fail - whatever the consequences, and not necessarily as dire as we have been 'told'

Old link but its an alternative view and it wasnt armageddon as we have been told it would be

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/11/key-lesson-from-iceland-crisis-%E2%80%9Clet-banks-fail%E2%80%9D/

macaque_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

No one complained when the banks were paying huge tax revenues in the Treasury in the boom years.

Firstly, banks have never paid huge tax revenues. They are not only very determined tax dodgers themselves but they have also found innovative ways of creating tax loopholes for their employees.

Secondly many people were complaining. The income that banks used to pay what little tax they did came from missellling financial products, gambling, selling toxic debt and promoting an asset bubble. You might not have been complaining but many of us were.

pqrdef

macaque wrote: »

The income that banks used to pay what little tax they did came from missellling financial products, gambling, selling toxic debt and promoting an asset bubble.

The banks might be forgiven for wondering what else they're supposed to do. There's very little they can do to differentiate their basic savings and loan products, so competition between banks has driven margins on these things down to rock bottom since the end of old-fashioned customer loyalty. There's no profit in simple banking.

This is where the Tory mantras disappear up their !!!!!!. Competition destroys profit, so you can't have both.

grizzly1911

pqrdef wrote: »

This is where the Tory mantras disappear up their !!!!!!. Competition destroys profit, so you can't have both.

Or private sector profit = public sector inefficiency both cost the same to the taxpayer just ideologically different "recipients".