The terms of BARCs recapitalisation plan this morning were certainly odd. But as far as we were concerned, they were odd in the sense that it made more sense for BARC to have exploited the British taxpayer’s lower offer. Odd, then, in a bad for Barclays way.
Vince Cable though, Treasury spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, sees the deal otherwise. The below cribbed from the Guardian:
This is a scandal of mammoth proportions. Here is a bank which relies on the taxpayer to bail it out if the going gets rough but which has offered Middle Eastern investors a much better deal than the banks are offering to the British taxpayer.
But, Vince, the taxpayer hasn’t bailed out BARC, that’s the point. No matter:
We have to ask why Barclays is willing to offer a better deal to foreign investors than the British taxpayer… The answer is simple: they don’t want the British Government stopping them from paying massive bonuses to their executives.
So apparently the LibDem Treasury spokesperson would rather the UK taxpayer was taking the risk here. Odd, because not so long ago, Cable was thundering on about the unbearable burden the taxpayer was being forced to bear.
More than the other banks, Barclays operate a high-risk casino operation which makes the bank particularly unstable but which gives very rich pickings to the top executives. The British Government must not simply let this pass.
You heard it: only the mediocre will do. Too bad they’re otherwise engaged in the LibDem Treasury team.