The bigger they are the harder they fall

So, are the mighty fallen. I don't tend to preach (much) in my posts but the events this week are almost beyond belief. Lehman Brothers in adminsitration; Merrill Lynch sold to prevent bankruptcy; HBOS, the same; AIG bailed out by the US government.

I hope that the men and women who run such organisations feel utterly ashamed of themselves, but I know that realistically, of course, they won't.

When times are good, such organisations are allowed, through arcane and weak regulatory regimes, to pursue greed with amoral, rash, indisciplined vigour, utterly uncaring of the potential consequences. Our political and economic systems are so inextricably bound to these organisations that successive governments have baulked at the idea of tighter controls and so, in turn, are made ridiculous when times change and hardships bite.

When the absurd policies pursued recklessly by these financial institutions are shown to be the stupidity they always were, who is it who is made to suffer? Sadly, it won't be the chief executives and so-called high-flyers. No, it will be the tax payer; the ordinary man in the street who simply wanted a decent pension when he retired; the family who have saved hard to put a little aside in the bank; the couple who just wanted to be able to buy a small house.

The fat cats will move on to other board rooms and expense accounts and the rest of us will pay for their greed for years to come.This is an obscenity of western society.

Shakespeare had it right 400 years ago when he wrote: "How quickly nature falls into revolt, When gold becomes the object."

When will our so-called political "leaders" (and I use that term very loosely) have the balls to make the people at the top truly accountable.....?

I wouldn't hold your breath.