- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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Continuing on my Blog postings “Britain engulfed in corruption” highlighting the major deficiencies of crony capitalism in the UK, today our attention should also be focused on “Deficient British democracy”.
British democracy in terminal decline
Exclusive: Corporate power, unrepresentative politicians and apathetic voters leave UK 'increasingly unstable'
“A study into the state of democracy in Britain over the last decade warns it is in "long-term terminal decline" as the power of corporations keeps growing, politicians become less representative of their constituencies and disillusioned citizens stop voting or even discussing current affairs.”…
The report “found evidence of many other areas where Britain appeared to have moved further away from its two benchmarks of representative democracy: control over political decision-making, and how fairly the system reflects the population it represents – a principle most powerfully embedded in the concept of one person, one vote.”…Continue to read
2012 Democratic Audit: British democracy in 'terminal decline'. Get the data
Photo:theguardian.com
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
- Hits: 5527
Barclays insider lifts lid on bank's toxic culture
Bob and his mates. Photo: Financial Times
“A former senior Barclays employee today exposes the “culture of fear” that operated at the bank and claims Bob Diamond would have been aware of his traders' activities.
Speaking exclusively to The Independent, the banker alleges that senior executives would have known of Libor fiddling in 2008.”…
“Punishing hours, victimisation, physical intimidation, arbitrary dismissal. Such is the portrait of working conditions under Bob Diamond described by a former employee in today's Independent. Perhaps those Barclays Capital bankers deserved their bonuses after all, just for putting up with him.
Now I doubt many people thought trading floors were a sanctuary of civility, gentility and compassion. Based on my experience at Bank of America in the 1990s, I would say they are Darwinian environments where large egos prosper and sensitive souls suffer. But I never witnessed the kind of fist-bashing detailed by the whistleblower. Nor the paranoid centralisation of power. Nor the shameless favouritism”…
Read more:
Exclusive: Barclays insider lifts lid on bank's toxic culture
Dan Gledhill: No one thinks the City is a picnic. But this was brutal
Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Globalisation for the Common Good
The Barclays scandal, Bob Diamond, the Riots, and the Rioters: Where is Justice?
Whatever Happened to the Moral Compass? Britain engulfed in corruption
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
- Hits: 3237
“Forget Bernie Madoff and Enron’s Ken Lay—they were mere amateurs in financial crime. The current Libor interest rate scandal, involving hundreds of trillions in international derivatives trade, shows how the really big boys play. And these guys will most likely not do the time because their kind rewrites the law before committing the crime.
Modern international bankers form a class of thieves the likes of which the world has never before seen. Or, indeed, imagined. The scandal over Libor—short for London interbank offered rate—has resulted in a huge fine for Barclays Bank and threatens to ensnare some of the world’s top financers. It reveals that behind the world’s financial edifice lies a reeking cesspool of unprecedented corruption. The modern-day robber barons pillage with a destructive abandon totally unfettered by law or conscience and on a scale that is almost impossible to comprehend.
- My Guest Blogger Peter Bowman: Good and Bad Taxes
- Britain engulfed in Corruption: Costs& Consequences
- Britain engulfed in corruption Part IV: Is Britain more corrupt than it thinks?
- My Guest Blogger Steve Szeghi: Student Loan Debt in the United States, Time to Forgive
- Britain engulfed in corruption Part III: …And now GlaxoSmithKline fined $3bn for healthcare fraud