Ill Informed Banker Bashing

William Wright, columnist for Financial News:
"In more than 15 years of writing about the financial markets, I have regularly tried to defend the industry against often ill-informed banker-bashing. Attacks on bonuses have deliberately inflated the numbers and neglected the fact that pay is coming down faster than it looks. Synthetic outrage from politicians has sought to disguise their own failings. And wilder claims that the banks are uniquely responsible for the crisis ignore the willing role played by everyone from investors and regulators to governments and individuals who were swept up in a collective debt-fueled euphoria."

"But in this instance, it is impossible to defend the indefensible. This breach too far will have devastating consequences not only for Barclays, but for the rest of the industry and its increasingly eroded relations with regulators and politicians as they rewrite the rules of the global financial system."