I don't even work in the City but when I read over a shoulder on the tube that Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, has planned to cap City workers bonuses at £2,500 I asked the poor chap to turn back the page as I couldn't believe the utter nonsense I was reading.
A ridiculous notion if there ever was one. Clearly trying to appeal to the working class public who are poised to vote and not hip to the fact that all these financial workers help promote the UK economically worldwide. Think of it like this: pre 2009 you marveled at the exchange rate of £1 to near $2 and took yourself shopping in New York or to Disneyland with the family.
Thank the brokers, traders and fund managers even the 'lower' end of the spectrum, the retail bank staff for making the UK a respected power country.
Yes bonuses of millions of pounds is shocking especially to those who don't understand but these people work incredibly hard, with a significant low social and private life to their professional one.
"All bonuses in excess of £2,500 to be paid in shares only redeemable after five years." Clegg says.
I still laugh when I read the above quote, financial and law PA's get paid bonuses larger than that.
Politicians will do anything to win.
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Interesting perspective.. valid point that many easily default to the 'fat cat' image the media has portrayed - and there's certainly some validity to that, however there are underlying essential economic benefits from the UK expansion of the banking sector. Increased tax revenues pushed infrastructure projects and social benefits, credit lines fueled growth in many industries and pushed the UK once again onto the global stage - not to mention everybody's retirement funds (usually containing Mutual Funds and IRAs) tripled in value over the last ten years. True, 40% of that value was subsequently lost when the bubble burst, however nobody seemed to be concerned while the big profits were rolling in. There's plenty of blame to go around for the financial crisis - I used to wrk in the city, but am now back in my native NY. Aside from the bankers, there's the financial regulators who were obviously asleep at the wheel, politicians approving deregulation, global monetary policy setting low interest rates to stimluate false growth and of course, the people who signed up for mortgages they couldn't afford. There's plenty of blame to go around - the key now is to put in SENSIBLE measures to ensure there's not a repeat. Unfortunately, politics come into play, and measures being suggested are woefully inadequate and as corretly outlined above completely off the mark.
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