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| Global warming, global banking; both may burn you up... |
Gillian Tett writes the highly regarded "Insight" column for the Financial Times. Her "beat" is the U.S. and global financial market place, financial institutions are her specialty.
"Insane Financial System Lives On Post-Lehman" was the headline of her latest column (9/13/2013). Her lead question in the piece was: "So as markets mark the fifth anniversary of the Lehman collapse, is the system any safer or saner?"
Ms. Tett's answer "...the bad news is that the system is just as insane - perhaps more so."
Here are the six reasons she cites as evidence of the continuing insanity:
* The big banks [TBTF] are bigger - not smaller than when Lehman collapsed.
* The "shadow banking" world is taking over more activity, not less. And, it is likely to swell further...
* The financial system depends more than ever on investors' faith in the central banks [Fed, et. al.]. A belief that central bankers know.. "what they are doing with quantitative easing; even though nobody has tried it on this scale before, or knows how to exit."
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| The Fatcats gain more and more weight ! |
* Few financiers have been prosecuted.
* Fannie and Freddie are still alive and well.
What's wrong with this picture? What's wrong is...
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| Wall St. investment bonker.... |
Our federal regulator and our trade associations clearly have no credibility in Congress...
... nor apparently do we.
(Wonder why?)
9 comments:
You ask why? Credit Unions emulate banks. They have forgotten their primary mission is for service.
The only reason credit union internal control problems have not made the radar of Congress is that credit unions as a part of the financial tapestry of the financial economy are just to small to care about.
Since ALL banks are bad for consumers and ALL investment banks are, as you have been saying and the picture implies, hooligans...meaning ALL...everyone...is the same as the worst.
Then perhaps a reader could use the same logic and conclude that ALL credit unions are .... Telesis...no, Norlarco...wait, CalState 9...no wait....Texans...oh no...St. Paul Croation...and you and me are...NO, NO...GraceMayo!,,
Why cloud your thoughts in the fog of absolutes?
The problem is not that all banks are bad - they're not - nor that all credit unions are good - they're not. The problem is that the good banks and the ABA have never publicly condemned the criminality of the few. Same might be said about credit unions and folks like CUNA.
Silence by the good accepts and endorses the actions of the less than good.
With the trades it's kind of a Pontius Pilote mentality perhaps...
Who cares what trades say?
Why is it THE problem that ABA has not condemned (or why Cuna has been so lame and yet credit unions still pay dues)?
Would it make you feel better that ABA condemned bank behavior?
You have been attempting accountability on Cuna, Ncya, banks for a while.
You make great points.
You lose listeners with the absolutes.
ALL derivatives are bad.
ALL banks are bad.
Ruins your good points and loses listeners.
Except for Cuna...they're pretty much ALL bad!!
Please re-read the prior comment a little closer... "not all"... "not all"... absolutely agree with you.
And yes, would feel better if the "good guys" at the trades, the banks, and the credit unions forgave a good bit less and condemned a good bit more.
As we've all seen too clearly of late: "When anything goes, everything goes."
This really all about accountability.
So, why don't you start a campaign to leave Cuna?
Why would any of us continue to pay them?
Maybe banks will wake up and take the hint and stop paying ABA.
Once we got that program going the next step is to vote out all encumbents.
America needs leadership.
Anything less than this is whining.
"Maybe banks will wake up and take the hint and stop paying ABA."
... or more likely, they'll unsheath their swords and deliver a death blow to the then-fractured credit union movement. The purpose of of a bank is not to be nice - it is to make money for investors.
A better approach IMHO is to engage with CUNA in an effort to reform the institution. We're largely missing an opportunity as a movement to be a consistent, credible alternative to the TBTF banking paradigm.
For the "CUNA" commenters:
What is "the problem"?
What would "reform" look like?
How would you "engage"?
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