angryrantz.com

Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension value keeps on climbing - “over £700,000 per annum for life” is the latest I’ve heard.  Apparently, this may prove to be impossible to prevent due to his contract.  Surely the harm done to the bank during his tenure of the hot seat breaches any sensible contract of employment.  Any normal member of the public who had failed so dismally would be lucky to leave with a month’s salary in their back pocket.  If the pension allocation would have been smaller if he had been sacked, he should have been sacked!

One alternative approach to Sir Fred and the other banking and finance whiz-kids, who have been taking multi-million pound bonuses for years, might be to mention the possibility of an in depth investigation of the accuracy of the accounts upon which their bonuses were calculated.  The recent collapse of the entire banking system proves that many assets held by the banks weren’t worth a fraction of their supposed value.  In this context, the accounts produced were false and misleading, whether by intention or not.  If the senior banking and finance executives are shown to have profited from inaccurate accounting, their assets would become liable for seizure.

These individuals, who can hardly be described as on the breadline, might prefer to pay significant proportions of their bonuses from the last few years into an emergency fund.  This could then be used to save some of the worst affected families from the harm caused by the greed culture that pervaded the finance system.  Priority could be given to those who, due to age, disability or other issues, have little chance of rebuilding their financial situation from scratch.  A few million pounds could help prevent 100 families losing their homes for the want of a few tens of thousands; a few tens of millions would bring similar help to 1000 families.  This wouldn’t solve the whole problem, but at least it would show willing, reduce the financial gain for those who contributed to the current global turmoil and save some of the poorest families from abject financial ruin that they may never escape without such helpcounting,.