BURN A BANKER?

CURRENT PUBLIC ANGER

‚Eat the rich’ and ‚Burn a banker’ are some of the slogans recently heard which symbolize the current public anger. Bank employees needed to turn up at work in jeans and unshaved to avoid getting lynched by an angry mob of anti G20 protesters. So-called ‘smug-bag millionaires’, who were speculating with other people’s money seem to get away with large pay-offs and bonuses despite their failure and the tax payer having to pick up the bill. Such appreciation seems to be public consensus and polls suggest that most people request banker’s pay should be cut. Politicians proved successful in a crack-down on tax heavens where the wealthy hide fortunes from the fiscus.

But where is the public opinion going? Do we appreciate the benefits which modern finance has brought to the economy over the last decade and do we just request some sort of shared responsibility with regards to the risks and rewards from its managers? Or do we go further and feel disgust for a whole industry? Or might we get grumpy with all the rich, as people did in previous recessions? Will we soon include sport stars, entertainers and entrepreneurs on our list of hated rich people?

Have your say.

Read more at:

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13405314
http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13356676