Cable Slams City 'Spivs And Gamblers'

Lenny Lovett

Most of his speech could just as easily have been about the Irish Banks too!

Vince Cable has launched a searing attack on the City "spivs and gamblers" who crippled the British economy as he rounded off the Liberal Democrats' first conference in power.
In a speech decried as "rabble-rousing" by business leaders, Cable condemned the "outrageous" scale of bank bonuses after the credit crunch.
"On banks, I make no apology for attacking spivs and gamblers who did more harm to the British economy than Bob Crow could achieve in his wildest Trotskyite fantasies, while paying themselves outrageous bonuses underwritten by the taxpayer," he said.

Playboy

populist rhetoric by Cable. The English need to be very careful when introducing regulation or bonus caps on financial institutions in London. London along with NY is the finance capital of the world. It's a massive industry and one that generates an enormous amount of wealth for the city and the country in general. If they start over regulating and penalising the bankers and banks then they will relocate elsewhere. There wont be a shortage of cities/countries who will be falling over themselves to attract the industry with low taxes and minimum regulation.

The situation in Ireland isnt comparable, you dont really have an investment bank culture or large international banks working out of Dublin. Yes the Irish banks caused mayhem and there is a case for strong regulation and caps as it wont impact the economy like it would in the UK.

rightwingdub

Would it not be better to bas bonuses on long term profitability over a number of years instead of yearly profitability, that way when there is a recession the banks won't find themselves looking for handouts off governments.