The banks get away with it again

Public fury at Sir Fred Goodwin and his chums is nowan excuse for politicians to substitute populism for decisive action, writes Philip Stephens

I genuinely do not know the extent of U.S. bank insolvency, but I do wish to pass along this contrary opinion:

Wolf Richter   www.testosteronepit.com   www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter Why is it that 17 nations have to fundamentally reorganize themselves and shift sovereignty away from national parliaments to new layers of centralized bureaucracies beyond democratic controls that can decide at will to extract untold wealth from taxpayers—just to save the banks?

USA consumers pay huge fees on debit cards not found in most other rich countries. Other countries provide debit cards with much cheaper fees than USA banks mandate now given their anti-competitive oligopolistic pricing power. I haven’t seen anyone (that isn’t in the pay of banks) arguing for keeping excessive fees in place. But there are lots of people being paid by the banks (including most likely, “your” representative).

In its last shot at defending the Northern Gateway pipeline, Enbridge Inc. says it has produced evidence to boot during the nearly completed regulatory review that the proposed project would generate enormous economic benefits for the country. It says it would be built and operated safely, that it has sought and incorporated input from communities and aboriginals over the last decade, that it would be well prepared to deal with any oil spills and improve existing emergency response on Canada’s Pacific Coast.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is expected to announce Wednesday a radical overhaul of the country's regulatory structure that could involve shifting a key function of the Financial Services Authority to the Bank of England.