Earlier today, the world's oligarchs held a conference titled "Inclusive Capitalism" (where common peasants were not allowed to get closer than 300 feet) where inclusive supposedly means "trickle down in an era of record cronyness", which among others was attended by Bill Clinton, Prince Charles and Madame Kill Bill [13]herself.
Here is what some of the participants said via Reuters [14]:
Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said ... that progress in completing banking reforms was being hampered by fierce industry lobbying.
You mean the industry which was bailed out by the same oligarchs holding court today (courtesy of taxpayer funds), and which even the Fed admits is still Too Big To Fail, and thus has no worries that any of its negative behavior would ever have negative consequences. That industry?
But the quotes of the day by far belonged to former Goldmanite and current Bank of England head Mark Carney. Here are some of his pearls of wisdom, via Reuters and Bloomberg:
"Just as any revolution eats its children, unchecked market fundamentalism can devour the social capital essential for the long-term dynamism of capitalism itself."
Well as long as he means social capital (not to be confused with government cash transfers in a world in which the welfare state has been bloated to epic proportions) because we know the real capital keeps evaporating: that "inevitable" capex rebound keeps getting pushed back year after year, while all the political capital, as Mario Draghi was so kind to lie to us, has been fully soaked up to keep Europe's artificial currency afloat.
Then there was this:
Carney said public trust had been damaged by the behaviour of banks both before and after the financial crisis. He cited allegations that the Libor interest rate benchmarks and prices on the foreign exchange market were tampered with. "An unstable dynamic of declining trust in the financial system and growing exclusivity of capitalism threatens."
Hold on: when Carney talks about examples of market rigging is he referring to the recent discovery that the "Bank Of England Encouraged Currency Manipulation By Banks [15]"? Surely not: that would be too cute even for a former Goldmanite.
He goes on:
"In the Bank of England's view, changes to both the hard and soft infrastructure of markets will be required," he said.
True: unfair practices such as Virtu having one whole losing day in 4 years of frontrunning market orders should be permanently eradicated. Also the mere possibility that JPM may not report an entire year with zero trading losses, should be promptly struck from the collective mind: imagine how much more confident in markets the retail investors would be if they knew that neither HFT firms nor TBTF banks could ever lose money again!
Before we forget, here is another instance of "social capital" - perhaps Carney will elaborate just what he means:
"Unbridled faith in financial markets prior to the crisis and the recent demonstrations of corruption ... has eroded social capital,"
This is certain: anytime a banker almost, just barely avoids jail time for stealing billions courtesy of a corrupt and criminal legal system that panders to the banks and regulators whose only hope is to get a job with the banks they "supervise", something inside the social capital dies a little.
But the punchline is undoubtedly this, via Bloomberg:
Carney says capitalism must reassess bankers’ "sense of self."
Oh, so it was the impaired banker "sense of self" that was at fault for corrupting capitalism as we know it, or rather no longer can recognize it.... Well that explains everything. As for the cure: we have an idea. The central banks should just print up a few cool trillion more (you know, to boost the economy and lol) and assure that in 2014 bankers get a year of absolutely blockbuster bonuses. That will promptly fix all "sense of self" fears and lingering doubts, and with it, according to Carney, capitalism itself.
Q.E.D
* * *
And all of the above in Bank of England tweet form:
Mark Carney: All market participants should recognise that market integrity is essential to fair financial capitalism pic.twitter.com/tV92YOhIZJ [16]
— Bank of England (@bankofengland) May 27, 2014 [17]