A few weeks ago I read Naomi Klein's "This Changes Everything." She specifically mentions how the bailout - after the 2008 crash - was a missed opportunity; that WS' behavior could been nudged or more. Given what was at risk, it's difficult to disagree.
In all the distrust and misinformation out there around this subject, it's refreshing whenever I see finance people talk in these terms. They are pragmatic to a fault, and wouldn't make statements like these lightly.
> They are pragmatic to a fault, and wouldn't make statements like these lightly.
The situation is dire, but lets not discount these are the very same people responsible for the derivatives scandal that plunged the global economy into disrepute, and profited very handsomely from it with bail outs and bonuses for their utter failure to exercise sound financial behaviour. So lets not place the very same people capable of creating their own catastrophic global crisis on pedestals.
With that said, consider how big their carbon footprint is in just the creation, maintenance and upkeep of their legacy system, which really only 'works' 5 days out of the week.
If they want to be taken serious, knowing they will never correct the malfeasance they call a business model, they should give little to no interest loans on startups and small businesses that help offset global climate change.
They won't and instead you'll see Jamie Diamond on TV alongside Blankfiend et al at Davos making these empty latitudes without so much as hesitating when they board their private jets whilst eating exotic food and drinks procured from all over the World.
Pragmatists? Hardly, opportunistic parasites willing to cling onto whatever narrative suits them, of course.
I didn't mean to put them on pedestals; I really did mean "to a fault". Usually it's a fault. What I'm saying is that they don't mess around when it comes to their own self-interest. So if even they are worried about this, we all should be.
Those things from big banks always remind me of the quote from Big Short: "Yeah, I think you mean that you've secured a net short position yourselves. So you're free to mark my swaps accurately for once because it's now in your interest to do so."
The problem has never been whether most people believe in climate change and its damaging effects. The problem has always been politics.