Bank bashing?

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

You bet there is a lot of public anger and no, they are not misguided.

I am not naive enough to think that I will change the minds of certain individuals here. But I will continue to make the arguments even if just to let off steam.

I do believe in fairness as do most if not all nice people.

@goodnightmoon - do you have any idea why the shareholders are happy? It is not as if the share prices are doing well. I suppose they get their share of these massive profits through dividend payments.

You are wrong about the bread and butter - the UK retail arm made £1.3billion; the investment bank made £5.7billion.

Stop and think where that money is coming from. Did they make something? Dig something up? Give of their time? The speculative trading takes money away from businesses that actually do things by inflating commodity prices. Every thing you buy, some of that money ends up in the pockets of the bankers. And they complain about having to pay tax on it - they are taxing all of us.

I don't claim that we can abolish money but we desparately need more regulation of the markets. If labour were too weak to do it even with a stonking majority I can't see the tories doing it. Unless we all make enough noise that they have to to survive politically.

Please, all of you, keep up the banker bashing! Don't forget that they caused this recession.

www.truth-out.org/michael-moore-america-is-not-broke68265

This pertains to the subject I feel.

Paul88

How much of HSBC's investment banking profits do you think came from speculatively trading? Given that HSBC doesn't have a proprietary trading desk, where is all this spec trading happening?

Are you completely sure these profits didn't come from things like M&A deals, capital raising, custodianship, settlements/clearing, and market-making things like FX, bonds, equities etc. These activities aren't speculative. Why shouldn't HSBC charge for these activites?

Sorry but your view that HSBC makes it's money from speculative activites is a complete fiction. It's not at all supported by the actual reality.

The question should be why can banks like HSBC charge so much for the (non-speculative) services they provide. There is clearly not enough competition in investment banking.

@siasl - I don't claim to know how HSBC makes its money; would be very interested to know more. If you would like to explain all those other things that investment banks do I will listen with interest.

What is a market-making thing?

But please don't think I am completely anti-capitalist: I don't think profit is a dirty word and I certainly don't think HSBC or anyone else should do things for free (although it is an interesting idea - the Big Society Bank??? Hang on it's called a credit union)

I do think big multinationals should pay tax on their profits at the same rate as everybody else.

I thought the multimillion pound remuneration for investment bankers was based on those individuals' success in speculative trading. If not, what exactly is it that they do that nobody else could do?

I am very good at what I do; I am well qualified and very experienced. These folk earn more in a day than I earn in a year. Calling it obscene was enough until their mistakes caused this global recession. And to see the snouts back in the trough so soon.