World’s top bankers warned by former Fed chairman Volcker

[dtotire]

Wake up, gentlemen’, world’s top bankers warned by former Fed chairman Volcker
Patrick Hosking and Suzy Jagger

From The Times
December 9, 2009





One of the most senior figures in the financial world surprised a conference of high-level bankers yesterday when he criticised them for failing to grasp the magnitude of the financial crisis and belittled their suggested reforms.

Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, berated the bankers for their failure to acknowledge a problem with personal rewards and questioned their claims for financial innovation.

On the subject of pay, he said: “Has there been one financial leader to say this is really excessive? Wake up, gentlemen. Your response, I can only say, has been inadequate.”

As bankers demanded that new regulation should not stifle innovation, a clearly irritated Mr Volcker said that the biggest innovation in the industry over the past 20 years had been the cash machine. He went on to attack the rise of complex products such as credit default swaps (CDS).


more:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6949387.ece

[IrateCitizen]

1. Volcker has been marginalized, when Summers or Geithner start saying these things...

... then I'll take notice. But let's just say I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

[BREMPRO]

2. They have been saying these things for months

For example regarding limits on executive compensation:

Bernanke: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/64445-bernanke-has-obamas-back-on-wall-st-pay
Geithner: http://seekingalpha.com/article/177133-why-geithner-s-executive-compensation-restrictions-are-effective-policy
Summers/Geithner: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/business/04pay.html?hp "In a letter to Congress last month, Lawrence H. Summers, director of Mr. Obama’s National Economic Council, suggested that the new pay restrictions would apply to all companies that get Federal help."

This is only a surprise to those who have painted the Obama economic team as wall street and corporate shills.


Volcker is also advising Obama and he listens.

[seeinfweggos]

3. your facts are inconvenient

because they don't fit the obama-is-evil-kucinich-is god meme.

[BREMPRO]

4. lol! good one.

The inability to get beyond Kucinich losing big, and the eagerness to find any and all fault in Obama is counterproductive. We should be fighting the real enemies- the Republicans, Faux News, Koch Bros, Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, teabaggers, etc. I don't really see much difference anymore between the RW teabaggers and extreme LW. They seem to have merged into one angry cynical reality-challenged mob.

[yurbud]

5. when summers starts advocating putting his business partners in prison, and undoing neoliberalism...

then I'll stop calling him a shill.

The pay issue is symbolic.