Partly because interest rates went down, inflation went up, and my money is getting worth less. The low interest rates help the big banks. In other words, I am currently paying to help out the big banks. Now, would you not say that, since I am paying, I should be allow to have some sort of minimal say in what is happening with MY money?

Todd,
here is my comment.
"Anglo-Saxon" market it still an example, that's my opinion. And who taught Shanghai, Bombay an the others to deal in world economy?
Theme, the english merchants.
Now, what Asia learned from that, is the problem.
Not only beeing part of the business, but making it going up and down.
Would you say once that is not George Bush or Alan Greespan the puppet makers?
I would!
Maria Giovanna

i like that – the english merchants taught the asians to trade.

The differences between the Neo-Liberal (Hayek) economic model (USA/UK) and the Social Market Economy model in Germany (a free market economy but with a strong social bias as far as the distribution of wealth is concerned) which dates from 1947, is becoming more and more apparent every day.

Top executives receiving € millions (in double digits) salaries create considerable animosity in Germany, where there is now a proposal that only the first million of a salary can be set off before tax, and any further amount must come out of after-tax profits. Furthermore, a golden goodbye to top execs who lose their jobs because of losses incurred at the company where they were in charge, meets with incredulity. Marcel Ospel's pay cheque when he residned from UBS last month was allegedly (in the media) just his basic salary due of an estimated CHF2 million.

There are strong feelings in Germany about the subprime crash; in
an interview in this week's "Stern" magazine, Germany's president Horst Köhler (formerly chief at the IMF) said that the bankers had created "a monster", by using uncontrolled leverage and he called for a "clear and audible confession of guilt" from banks. He wants all the German "Landesbanken"to merge into a central "savings" bank.

Interestingly I read an article by the Chief Economist at BNP Paribas (Philippe ?? I forget his surname, he is also a Professor at a Paris University) in the Swiss financial paper "Finanz und Wirtschaft"
some weeks ago in which he stated that many tranches of the lowest qualty, riskiest mortgage debt which were securitized, were rated AAA , although they were the securities which were designed to bear the first LOSSES!! Many people were not aware of this fact, wrote the BNP economist. In other words, it was quite possible that anyone buying mortgage-backed securities with a triple AAA rating, believing they were best quality paper, might in fact be buying the riskiest, the most toxic debt.

The German government is said to be taking steps for much closer observation of the banks. There is a German saying "Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser" (Trust is good , but control is better). It looks like there is going to be far less trust in future, imo, and a lot more control and supervision of banks operating in Germany.

Concerning high wages for bankers: it is the shareholders' equity that supports the firm and it is their profits to divide up. Somehow the executives have gotten the upper hand and have convinced the representatives of the shareholders (i.e the Board) that they can't be replaced. Believe me, these guys are smart but they are not worth the high wages being paid them! Time to get back in tune with reality and reward those who are taking the real risks – the shareholders! Look at the SocGen trading scam...those guys were asleep and more concerned with the upcoming lunch menu than trying to protect shareholders. The tide will turn (hopefully) and the rich bankers will be living like the rest of us and enjoying public transit.

Hi Max,
In the world today, we see the growing concern about people and their actions. We see a fat person and say to each other, there should be a law to stop that so I do not have to pay for it later. Or the smoker, who's actions are now viewed as to much added expense to us all. We put up camera's in our cities, decided to listen to everyone's phone calls, view our employees e-mails, and test them randomly for drugs, all under the term of weeding out the bad from the good. Yet we fail to control people with money. Why is that?

Why is it that it is the people with the money can influence the creation of our laws. Why is it that people with money can seem to do what they want without repercussions? They can lie to us to get us to invest our hard earn money into their ideas, then cheat us while walking away with the money we gave them, and the only thing that is said is, too bad.

Does it cost too much to enforce the law on the rich with their expensive lawyers who know how to twist the law, the law the lawyers help to write? Is there too few who can handle a multi-billion dollar company so too many in jail would bring a shortage of CEO's in our world?

Maybe it is because when we see the so called brightest minds who get paid millions of dollars to run our world mess up, we realize who else is there and just accept the fact there was no one better.

I cannot help but feeling who is the worest of the bunch, the stupid man who has had little school, few breaks, living hand to mouth everyday, who finally gives into stealing to try to get ahead, or the man who has had it all. The education, the so called easy life, who cannot forcus on anything else but getting more, and is willing to cause the loss to the hard working people of the world to get there. Hard call for me to decided.

They say we need the rich, for it is they who have the money and the talent for progress. Okay, then I thank them. But for those who create hardship for thousands and thousands of people because their idea's to make themselves more money fail, then I say, maybe you would be more careful with your decisions, if the only one who pays the price for a mistake, is the one who makes it. We all have to face that in our common lives, maybe it is time the rich have to face that too.

All you bankers needed a break from playing and enjoying other peoples money......so move over and get on welfare...or find a new career......you can certainly take up some history lessons: " The English taught the Asians to trade".........was that before or after the English used trade missions to rob the world???
Well atleast you can get back to doing some honest business in the banking industry....we all need second chances to correct our corruptness.......here's yours. Good Luck!

HSBC or you name any, are no NGO's. Its mere presence means target and profit. High Inflation, ever decreasing interest rates and low spending patterns are making life hard for these organisations to survive, so it’s not by fortune but by necessity that they are looking towards emerging markets be it China or India. These emerging markets are more of pilot projects for these financial bigges, the rules are always created and nurtured in the Anglo-Saxon market/model. It’s just that the rules of survival are implemented in these upcoming market.

Huge loss in America and big profit in Asia (That’s Wrong!)– No market is ever saturated. Remember business never serves a market, it creates it. No market is same, you cannot have a general rule of business for all markets. It’s just that you have to tweak the rules of the game. Yes in this world of ever decreasing lead time where dynamics are changing fast, everything boils down to one thing "how and who control's the environment" everything else is a gain or a loss.

No one taught asians how to trade. Asians have learnt the way the Europeans trade.

Just a small comment – HSBC, Europe's biggest bank. Those of us old enough to remember will recall that HSBC stands for Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. In focusing more on SE Asia and India, HSBC are simply returning to their origins, where the bank was started and mostly built for many, many, years. They were headquartered in Hong Kong for far longer than they have been in London.

Todd, At least bankers who choose to head to Dubai can participate in a monumental property boom. And with the local currency pegged to the US dollar interest rates are so low that the boom is being fanned out of control. Consider this, we have buyers queuing up in 40C to buy homes: http://arabianmoney.net/2008/05/28/buyers-queuing-overnight-as-demand-booms-for-dubai-real-estate/