Recently, banks got a huge fine of Euro 1.7 billion for the libor scandal/ fraud/ manipulations. If you do not know what the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) is – it is the inter bank interest rate hat is charged between banks. My own bank was also involved in the scandal and got a fine of 775m. They send me this letter (in Dutch). What do I have to say? all Dutch banks were nationalized as they had toxic assets and they nearly went bust during the last three years – ING, ABN. Rabobank Letter page 1 Rabobank letter page 2 .
The bankers are greedy. They do everything to forge the system to get their bonus. Who would not use all available methods to get rich quick and receive a super high bonuses. When I was studying business administration it was the holy grail for many fellow students to get rich quick and join the financial elites in London and New York. Drive big cars, work long hours and retire and look 20 years older the they were at 40 including a too young trophy model girlfriend and a big penthouse overlooking central park in NYC.
I wonder how people now look at this kind of career and if young students still want to join the financial elite?
Greed is human. Greed is instututionalised. Politics are poor in handling greed. Today the news in Holland were that many semi government housing cooperations who made very very unusual investment choices in the past 10 years. The thing is The Netherlands is denslyn populated and the cooperations have one goal: provide affordable housing for people who can not afford a cheap place to live. Housing prices in the free market are unaffordable. they have bunked a lot a cash as they were for along time run very conservative. During the boom years the last ten years many of them have made very very risky investment. There were many case of fraud. The top is still filling their pockets. They recently raised their salaries. The politicians are in uproar today.
And then, one thing strikes me about our general culture. Many people are busy with how they look and that they must look beautiful even after a pregnancy. A selfie of a Norwegian semi celeb caused uproar today. She posted a selfie of herself how good she looks 3 days after giving birth.
What kind of society have we created? A society were everybody thinks about themselves and wants to show off what they have how good they look and how rich they are? No wonder that Facebook causes major depression en envy with the average people.