Well it seems they got away with it....

[Loz]

Edited, coz I can't read.

[DaveR]

"And am I right in thinking Dave, you are a buy-to-let investor? I might be wrong but if I recall rightly that you are then of course you are never going to accept any kind of regulation on the return from your investment. It stands to reason. "

No, you're wrong. I'm just a regular guy who likes to look at evidence before coming to conclusions. And tries to avoid ad hominem arguments wherever possible.

[DJKillaQueen]

DaveR Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>I'm just a regular guy who

> likes to look at evidence before coming to

> conclusions. And tries to avoid ad hominem

> arguments wherever possible.

And quite rightly too. False arguements do nobody any good.

I do think that things are linked, such as poverty, low wages, unemployment, benefits, housing and the noticeable lack of job creation in the private sector and it all points to some very fundamental things going very wrong in our economy (be the reasons, cultural, educational or whatever). And it's been going on for a long time.

Many people would cite Thatcherism as the starting point of the decline but the decline started long before with the decline of manufacturing and other changing aspects of society (for example higher education of women and a greater demand for jobs and so on). I think where governemnts have failed is to make sure the population is suitably skilled for the changes as they come (no investment). We've accumulated lost generations of unemployed as a result. We are historically poor at planning for the future as a nation and we don't invest enough in business either.

Thatcherism definitely was the precursor to the modern widening gap between rich and poor but it's a gap that (for all their efforts) has also continued to grow under Labour.

I think a good start for any government would be to start taking a long view term of things and planning policy around that. There are too many psuedo economists and lawyers in politics and not enough people who really understand how to start to build a fairer, more productive and better rewarded, balanced and cohesive society.

[SteveT]

The government has taken a lot of equity in the likes of RBS, and once the situation is stable, they will release the stock, probably at a profit.

It does stick in the throat that many employees of a failed company are still getting paid very well, but at the end of the day they need to retain their staff, so what can they do? Sometimes you need to look at things from a logical - rather than an emotional - perspective.

Wrote Jeremy.

To attempt to look at things in a logical way one might argue that Bob Diamond taking 64million from the coffers of Barclays,

who have borrowed large from the Gulf at 15% per annum,

might be considered to be gilding the lily a tad, for one years work excluding his salary.

A few years back when the Vikings did it, they called it pillaging, now due to a severe drop in standards

we call it banking

[DJKillaQueen]

LOL those are very good points. There's no doubt that a few people at the top are overpaid and care very little beyond what they personally can get out of it. But I totally agree that the answers have to as practical as they are moral and everything else.

[SteveT]

I can understand how banks are doing well, they've increased their charges.

I sent $800 to Taiwan from my bank to their bank and it cost ?38

I asked how were they delivering it, by ox cart?

Sending money electronically at the flick of a switch is mighty costly these days.