Subj : Pedro S nchez is living m
To   : Arelor
From : Boraxman
Date : Sun Apr 10 2022 10:46:00

-=> Arelor wrote to Boraxman <=-

 > I disagree that "the market" will sort out the dodgy players.  It may for a
 > restaurant which poisons many, maybe, but for large businesses, no.  The
 > institutions which nearly brought down the worlds economic system in 2008 st
 > have customers.
 >

 Ar> For one thing, the 2008 crisis was as much the fault of end-consumers
 Ar> as it was from big investment funds.

 Ar> Finantial institutions were dumb when conceeding so many NINJA loans,
 Ar> but then people taking NINJA loans because they wanted to go on
 Ar> vacation abroad are also to blame. Heck, when the crisis showed its
 Ar> head up, banks stopped giving such loans and the public here went angry
 Ar> because the bank was not going to fund random junk anymore. This is so
 Ar> true that certain political parties made it an electoral program to
 Ar> force banks to keep offering loans or outright socializing the loan
 Ar> mechanisms.

 Ar> On the other hand, dodgy finantial institutions still have customers
 Ar> precisely because the government forces people to go through them.
 Ar> There are lots of things you are legally forced to go through a bank
 Ar> for in Spain. If I wanted to buy the four donkeys that live next
 Ar> village, I am forbidden from buying them with cash.

 Ar> However, it is ok that the government forces you to use these
 Ar> institutions, because there is the implied promise they won't let the
 Ar> system fail [\sarcasm]. The government can always foce a big bank to
 Ar> buy a banrupt bank for 1 EUR and everybody will be happy forever! (See
 Ar> Banco Popular's case in Spain).

 Ar> My bank is a rural cooperative finantial institution, but getting into
 Ar> one of those is not affordable for most people. Your regular Francisco
 Ar> is de facto forced to get into one of those banks backed with
 Ar> government protection and what does what the government tells them to
 Ar> do.

 Ar> So yeah, not much a surprise here that lame banks still have customers
 Ar> since customers are basically threatened into partaking.

I've never met anyone in real life who chooses a bank based on whether the
people running the bank are actively working toward creating the next financial
crisis or not.  There are scant few that would not deal with a bank because
their activities were fiscally reckless.  Using Australia here as an example,
our banks are giving out 100% loans, interest only loans for a residential
market grossly inflated by government policy.  Consumers don't know how to
evaluate this, and when they are given the 'choice', the marketing is done by
the companies themselves, like how you determine whether an energy company is
"green" by the propaganda that very same company gives you!

People are working for these financial institution who get paid six, seven or
even eight digit salaries to run these.  They are responsible.  Their salary is
based upon the premise that they have great responsibility and are taking great
risk.  The buck stops with them, NOT the customer.  The institution gets to
decide who it gives loans to, and if it is hamstrung by government, it has far,
far greater say in political affairs than the customer.

In Australia, the banks have a good deal of freedom to choose what type of
loans they give, on what terms, and to whom, and they definately, positively
make reckless loans.  The government has underwrited bank accounts up to 1/4 of
a million, and actively engages in policy to prop up the banks.  The banks are
more than happy to go along, and while they might make noises about an
overheated housing market, they will still happily give a loan to some greedy
f&*k landlord so they can buy their 10th property at the current eye-watering
prices.

When they inevitably fail, these banksters will get protected, they'll either
keep their jobs or get a golden handshake.  They truly are the dregs of
society, and I can fully understany why some people think some
less-than-political means are required to deal with our financiers.  They have
it coming, they really do.

None of the 2008 GFC jackoff got punished, and they WERE criminals.  They are
definately not victims.  They got away with high-crimes.  Society didn't get
angry enough at them.  The Right Wingers deflected the blame to the poor black
and brown people and suggested that Joe the Bricklayer was at fault.

Let me repeat, they engaged in very dodgy, unethical and criminal business
practices, and having spoken to an insider, it was worse than what the
mainstream media reported.

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