Are we too hard on the bankers?

[rov1200]

Prince Andrew seems to think so. The financial industry creates many jobs and is a revenue earner for the tax man. With a reported £12bn to be paid out in bonuses this year are we trying to crucify the goose that lays the golden egg?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8323592.stm

[AndThenSome]

If you do great work, then why should'nt you be rewarded by your employers?

[craft1948]

I thought the reward for good work was keeping your job..........

[David Black]

Cant see the issue is with Goldman Sachs given they took no government money.

What do they have to say sorry for?

[dr b]

The counter-argument is that Goldman raised a lot of capital very cheaply (backed by explicit and implicit government guarantees - Goldman was surely \"too big to fail\"; Fed policy has kept interest rates very low, making it cheap to borrow), and then took big risks to make huge trading profits. Since the risk of loss was borne by the taxpayer, and all the gains would accrue to Goldman, there is an argument that says that it would be \"fair\" in this case to tax the bankers\' bonuses heavily. (Normally I am all for wealth creation and less concerned about wealth redistribution, but in this case I can see the merits of that argument.)

[David Black]

No everything else was too big to fail and therefore was being looked after by Government and in the process nearly strangled.

Goldman's and JP Morgan just ran their businesses well and made a lot of money as everyone else shot themselves in the foot.

No one has an issue with other businesses that cost the stte nothing but do pay a lot in taxes etc so why hate bankers?

[Gromit]

Let's see.

It has taken £70billion of our money to stop a banking collapse in this country. That is £3000 for every household in the country. The people running these businesses then decide they new further rewarding for their good works and start to pay themselves bonuses while many a company goes out of business because they can't get any credit from the banks.

No, I don't think we have been hard enough.