Winston Churchill's infamous speech, immortalising the heroes who fought for this nation, seems to be a distant memory in both time and meaning. Nowadays the greed and corruption in modern day society has led to a global financial meltdown, with the rich taking from the poor, (something our friend Robin Hood would not be too happy to hear) and the financial institutions we put so much trust in showing their true colours.
The irresponsible actions carried out by so many of the worlds financial heavyweights, combined with factors such as the sub-prime mortgage crisis in America and a culture of over lending and excessive borrowing, has caused the global economy to head into downturn . With the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September of 2007, the global knock on effect was felt, and it hit hard. Property prices rose, and Inflation and Interest rates rocketed. The "Credit Crunch" was about to knock the wind out of economies all around the world.
What strikes me as ridiculous is why nobody took action sooner, after a preemptive Credit Crunch warning 2 years ago by economist Nouriel Roubini gave us more than enough time to avoid such an event. Perhaps the people that should have been listening were already relaxing on their yachts in their secret little tax havens around the world, leaving the innocent civilians around the world to pick up the pieces. People such as former Nasdaq boss Bernard Madoff, who managed to dupe investors into his $50 billion scam, are the prime examples of the greedy, money grabbing world in which we now live. With no thought of the consequences, no compassion, no sense of care for anyone apart from himself, Madoff epitomizes all that is wrong with the financial world today.
The problem now is that consumer confidence is at an all time low, and people are genuinely worried about putting their money into financial institutions and with the markets as bear as they have ever been, investors are hard to find at the moment. The uncertainty brought about by the selfish acts of others, such as short term financial bonuses for performance, has caused the everyday man on the street to pay.
Some may argue that its not the banks fault. People may have been taking mortgages knowing they could not afford repayments, and financial regulators may not have been doing their job, but that is the society we live in. Banks want your money. Pure and simple. By offering you a mortgage they know you cant afford, surely that is immoral. But maybe that is it, where is the morality in banking?Can you be a moral banker? The nature of the financial world suggest that No is the most appropriate answer. The drive for personal success within the egocentric industry means that people will do anything for the next bonus, no matter how many people are trampled on. The thing is that one man's gain is another man's loss, and it is the common people who are feeling the brunt of the greed of a few.
Hope for the future? Well President Obama has already agreed to cap bonuses, injections of money have been used to stimulate economies, interest rates have dropped to help lending and borrowing, and consumer confidence is beginning to rise again. Yet depsite the measures, surely the root of the problem is with the financial industry, and how it is run. People need to start thinking about the consequences of their actions, and bring a little selflessness into their work, but I suppose in an industry such as banking, this goes against all that it stands for.
No comments:
Post a Comment