Banks Can Be Made Honest But Not Fail-Safe

Perhaps you didnâ??t notice, but throughout much of this week the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards has been hosting a series of high-powered witnesses â?? among them the Chancellor, George Osborne, the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, and his likely successor, the Deputy Governor, Paul Tucker. Much of the discussion was quite arcane in nature, involving as it did the deeper intricacies of the banking reform agenda. Even for those of us who claim to know about this sort of stuff, it made tedious listening. The temptation to switch channels was at times almost overpowering. Especially when you consider that back in the real world, a truly shocking tale of greed, hubris, and negligent behaviour was beginning to unfold that compares to some of the worst the banking crisis had to offer. If finance has learnt its lesson, it was not apparent from this little escapade.