Barclays caught fiddling!(All the banks now!)

[No6]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

The current financial crisis was not caused by Government expenditure on things like healthcare, education, pensions etc, despite what Cockbadger Cameron would like us to think. The GLOBAL financial crisis was caused by the much vaunted financial "markets" imploding under their own greed.

Whilst the current financial crisis was caused in the main by the banking sector, all western governments structured their spending around the tax receipts that particular hall of mirrors was generating, or at least appeared to.

Our total inability to recover from this crisis effectively is because governments are hampered by debts and levels of spending that were, and are, unsustainable and based around the illusion that was the pre-credit crunch era.

This is the one truth at the heart of this banking crisis that many on the left, if you'll excuse that term of art, repeatedly choose to ignore.

I think you are making a fair point there Gordon. However, I feel that there is a reactionary element at play when people boil it down to a left/right wing issue.

My fear(which many on here may feel has already manifested itself) is that the financial crisis and the subsequent austerity drive will be manipulated by politicians to become one and the same thing.

People are losing their jobs. Hospitals, schools and social services are finding their financial situations increasingly untenable. These are services we once cherished and that were the envy of many other nations.

We are the little people(well, I certainly am, lol) and if we embroil ourselves in arguments about left and right wing political standpoints then we waste what little time we have left to correct the situation on arguing amongst ourselves. Lets not forget that we've managed to fund HUGELY expensive wars and been able to prop up a financial sector that imploded of it's own doing and that even now, vast sums of money are being made on the financial markets by a select few. This raises the following question:

Does a society and it's elected representatives exist to support the needs and aspirations of its population, or to support the aims of it's businesses and corporations?

I personally think that the answer lies somewhere between the two: that there is a symbiotic relationship between the two. My fear is that the balance has been shifting towards one side at the expense of the other. It is the role of govts to ensure this balance is restored and maintained but the Barclays example highlights the possibility that perhaps the "little man" is getting the raw end of the deal. Lets not demonise people for defending their hard won employment rights and for hoping that nation states can represent and defend their interests.

This is not a view borne of any established political doctrine, I don't want it to be interpreted as coming from either a left or right wing viewpoint. I prefer to consider it a humanist standpoint.

Divide and rule is the oldest trick in the book. Whilst we fight amongst ourselves on who's political ideology is correct, we get shafted.

 

[Balti]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

I wonder if this breaking news and SWPs back going on holiday is a coincidence

You never see him and that Diamond geezer in the same room at the same time......

 

[No6]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

Indeed. Let's try a different headline:

"Bank not funded by tax-payer bailout gets fined for breaking code of practice"

Hmmmmm...not so sensational is it. Still, gives the lefties something to shoot at....

You think its that simple? People with a left-wing viewpoint just spouting off about capitalist systems? Its comments like that which needlessly polarise this very significant debate. Whether people proclaim to be left or right wing, they ALL have reason to be appalled. Think about what's actually happened before wading in with divisive and ill considered comments.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong but those of a right-wing persuasion believe in and advocate a free-market economy, where the markets (not just financial markets but ANY markets) determine the value of goods/services/shares etc. The key word here is "free" market, where value and worth is determined (very simplistically in this explaination) by supply and demand. A free market can not exist where there is collusion between parties to artificially fix prices. This flies in the face of free market ideals.

What these banks (and at the last count the EU & US have named 44 of them) are doing is fixing the market to their own collective advantage, which should get the blood of right wingers boiling just as much as "lefties".

So please, before you try to water down an argument to a simplistic lefties versus tory argument, have a sit down with a cup of tea and actually think about what is going on.

We ALL get screwed by this.

The current financial crisis was not caused by Government expenditure on things like healthcare, education, pensions etc, despite what Cockbadger Cameron would like us to think. The GLOBAL financial crisis was caused by the much vaunted financial "markets" imploding under their own greed.

Thank you and good night ;)

Oooh, thank you blueinsa, don't think I've ever received an ovation before!

:)

 

[ElanJo]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

Yes they do. And they can cause the catastrophic economic problems thay they have by playing God and spunking money up, and lending too much to folk who are clearly never going to pay it back and allowing people to borrow 120% of the value of their house. Then when it goes wrong, they get bailed out by our government and our money, thereby giving the government the excuse to demonise good working people in the public sector and treat people like shit. But hey, as we've just been told on another thread in a fishing expedition, the country is not fucked!

Why would they do this?

And why did they all just decide to do it now?

Look at the causes of these things instead of just mindlessly demonising bankers.

 

[Swales lives]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

Canary Wharf.

Anagram of: Anarchy Fraw(d).

That's my bit. Cheers.

 

[yerwot?]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

Yes they do. And they can cause the catastrophic economic problems thay they have by playing God and spunking money up, and lending too much to folk who are clearly never going to pay it back and allowing people to borrow 120% of the value of their house. Then when it goes wrong, they get bailed out by our government and our money, thereby giving the government the excuse to demonise good working people in the public sector and treat people like shit. But hey, as we've just been told on another thread in a fishing expedition, the country is not fucked!

Why would they do this? greed and short-term policy

And why did they all just decide to do it now? being going on for years

Look at the causes of these things instead of just mindlessly demonising bankers.

reagonomics gave bank corporations the keys to the till
the banks have lost any claim to being victimised by their efforts to hide their guilt

 

[Swales lives]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

I wonder if this breaking news and SWPs back going on holiday is a coincidence

You never see him and that Diamond geezer in the same room at the same time......

I'm sure it's just a coincidence. SWPs would be horrified at the corruption and fraud employed by these major financial institutions.

SWPs Back is a very honest man - just read his recent posts regarding it being okay to lie in court and the devious ways out of paying speeding fines. Couple that with his view that Jimmy Carr has done nothing wrong over his tax dodging antics and you will find a moral beacon in the grimy world of the financial services industry.

 

[pfazz]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

My dear old mum never used banks, she said she didn't trust them. How fucking right was she?

 

[blueinsa]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

The current financial crisis was not caused by Government expenditure on things like healthcare, education, pensions etc, despite what Cockbadger Cameron would like us to think. The GLOBAL financial crisis was caused by the much vaunted financial "markets" imploding under their own greed.

Whilst the current financial crisis was caused in the main by the banking sector, all western governments structured their spending around the tax receipts that particular hall of mirrors was generating, or at least appeared to.

Our total inability to recover from this crisis effectively is because governments are hampered by debts and levels of spending that were, and are, unsustainable and based around the illusion that was the pre-credit crunch era.

This is the one truth at the heart of this banking crisis that many on the left, if you'll excuse that term of art, repeatedly choose to ignore.

I think you are making a fair point there Gordon. However, I feel that there is a reactionary element at play when people boil it down to a left/right wing issue.

My fear(which many on here may feel has already manifested itself) is that the financial crisis and the subsequent austerity drive will be manipulated by politicians to become one and the same thing.

People are losing their jobs. Hospitals, schools and social services are finding their financial situations increasingly untenable. These are services we once cherished and that were the envy of many other nations.

We are the little people(well, I certainly am, lol) and if we embroil ourselves in arguments about left and right wing political standpoints then we waste what little time we have left to correct the situation on arguing amongst ourselves. Lets not forget that we've managed to fund HUGELY expensive wars and been able to prop up a financial sector that imploded of it's own doing and that even now, vast sums of money are being made on the financial markets by a select few. This raises the following question:

Does a society and it's elected representatives exist to support the needs and aspirations of its population, or to support the aims of it's businesses and corporations?

I personally think that the answer lies somewhere between the two: that there is a symbiotic relationship between the two. My fear is that the balance has been shifting towards one side at the expense of the other. It is the role of govts to ensure this balance is restored and maintained but the Barclays example highlights the possibility that perhaps the "little man" is getting the raw end of the deal. Lets not demonise people for defending their hard won employment rights and for hoping that nation states can represent and defend their interests.

This is not a view borne of any established political doctrine, I don't want it to be interpreted as coming from either a left or right wing viewpoint. I prefer to consider it a humanist standpoint.

Divide and rule is the oldest trick in the book. Whilst we fight amongst ourselves on who's political ideology is correct, we get shafted.

Great post and sums it up perfectly for me.

 

[tueartsboots]

Re: Barclays caught fiddling!

And what do they read ? Theft ! Sorry "The FT"