Six interest rate rises in a row? Blame greedy City bankers

theguardian.com:

City bankers are ruining your life again. They just can’t help it. Rescued from collapse in 2008 and force fed a healthy financial diet ever since, the industry is now in fine fettle. And with a deluded display of arrogance only they can muster, bankers have come to see themselves as a force for good, especially in these troubled times.

Their sizable reserves are largely intact and the hazardous operations that caused so much trouble more than a decade ago are overseen by tough regulators.

Unable to indulge in their usual risky behaviour, they have been allowed to revive one pre-crash habit – dishing out huge bonuses to their directors, traders, derivatives brokers, marketing executives and pension fund managers.

City bonuses in February and March this year were the largest in cash terms on record, driving the gap between pay with and without bonuses to its highest-ever level. By the time figures for the year to May came out, total pay including bonuses in finance and insurance was up 13.6%, down only marginally from a peak of 15.4% in the year to March.

The consultancy CEBR said that a closer look at the figures found that in May, workers in the top 1% of earners, most of them in the financial sector, enjoyed pay packages more than 10% larger than the year before, while those in the bottom 20% received just 1% extra.

There were some other winners in the race for higher pay, including construction workers, HGV drivers and hospitality workers. But these rises can be attributed to Brexit-related staff shortages, and the increases, while substantial in percentage terms in some cases, are often from a very low base.

The stench of injustice generated by a City bonus culture – one that shows again how bank profits are considered a