Darling's momoirs: idiots or crooks?

 

Reading Alistar Darling's serialised memoirs in The Sunday Times is an excruciating experience. Therefore to avoid the repetition let us try to draw key conclusions. They do not necessarily represent this blog author's views: these are merely logical inferences from Mr Darling's memoirs.
We were governed by people of a very low intellectual capacity
The fact that Gordon Brown believed that the financial crisis would be over in six month proves just that. He was the Chancellor of the Exchequer for 10 years or so and then the Prime Minister for around a year when the financial crisis struck. The causes and mechanisms of the current crisis were actually quite easy to understand. And even a look at previous crises in history should have caused more caution rather than such stunningly bullish assessment.
What makes it worse is that other politicians, especially Members of Parliament, let Gordon Brown hold such high offices. This proves that they were of equal or lower intellectual capacity than Mr Brown or it suited them. In street language but as a fair assessment at the same time: a bunch of idiots. The former is assertion is particularly shocking as Gordon Brown was not even a charismatic figure. This makes the latter more plausible: there was a number of politicians who knew that the financial crimes that led to the financial crisis were committed by the financial industry and knowingly allowed them to happen. The motivation for abetting these crimes is another matter: nepotism (a relative or a friend working in the City), financial gains (having business interests in the financial industry), hopes for future gains (getting good roles in the financial industry in the future: so-called being a part of a revolving door tradition between the City and the government) or something else.
Politicians do not want prosecutions of the criminals responsible for causing the financial crisis
The City must love being hated as greedy, arrogant, irresponsible, etc. These are all adjectives which are not nice but so readily used by politicians towards the bankers. However they do not imply anything more than just that: being not nice. Therefore they divert public attention from the criminal causes of the financial crisis to somewhat human nature related ones for which people cannot be tried. This is the biggest deceit, a PR exercise, that is going on now. You cannot put someone before the Court for being arrogant or having too high level of testosterone or representing a male domineering culture. That is why the financial industry, especially many of those who are the financial criminals, must love it: "call us what you want, but we keep the dosh and keep making for us more of it". They are laughing all the way, well, to the bank. And we, the taxpayers, keep paying for the bankers and subsidising the financial industry. And politicians.
But... the US authorities have started pursuing 17 banks for compensation for, effectively, causing a subprime mortgage crisis. If the process stays on this level it will be a way of transferring the UK taxpayers money to the US government. I.e. money that the UK government used to rescue some British banks will be paid out to the US as a compensation. Billions of pounds probably. On one side, a bad news but the US, however, have a very good track record in bringing financial criminals to justice. The criminals who caused Enron or WorldCom scandals ended up in jail. Some committed suicide. So let us hope that the US will be as determined this time round and we see the criminal who caused the current financial crisis punished. And that the City is not immune to this process. Still long shot though.

http://gregpytel.blogspot.com/2011/09/darlings-diary-idiots-or-crooks.html