3 February 2009 · finance, greed, market failure, redundancy

One question I have to ask about the financial world. The largest financial organization in the world have clearly been managed by people who have failed to take to heart the lessons of Fooled by Randomness. In fact they don't even seem to be aware that the past does not always allow you to predict the future, except when their undertakings need billions of dollars and suddenly become "too big to fail".

So how come these people are still in their jobs? I think we can do without the Gordon Gekkos in Wall Street and the City, thank you very much. If they won't do the work without being paid huge bonuses perhaps it's time to look for people who know what "enough"means.

There's been a suggestion that nobody in one of the banks that the US government has recently invested heavily in should earn more than the US President ($400,000 when Bush was in office). I think that's a great idea. If the fat cats won't take a pay cut, let them find better-paid work elsewhere.