Sunday, September 28, 2008

Suicide shouldn't be the punishment for bankers

The City was in shock last night after the apparent suicide of a millionaire financier haunted by the pressures of dealing with the credit crunch.

Kirk Stephenson, who was married with an eight-year-old son, died in the path of a 100mph express train at Taplow railway station, Berkshire.

I felt for a few weeks that we need to see a few bankers facing public penury so that the rest of us can at least see that someone has paid for not only burning or pension funds but also for relying on our money to bail them out.

I say this not through some sense of schadenfreude, but more as a release for public frustration so that we can all then move on. Lets face it, the sight of bankers walking round in £1000 suits while we bail them out of the deep hole their greed has got our financial institutes in to. I know that no laws have been broken (or at least that we know of) but the sight of Ley and Ebbers getting their public comeuppance made us all feel a bit better - well it made me feel better.

However I wouldn't want to think that this desire would lead to anyone committing suicide; money just isn't that important.

PS I don't normally read the Mail, it was lying around at the half way house when I passed through during my golf round this morning and this story was on the front page.

PPS My heart goes out to his son, who must wondering what on earth he has done to deserve this.

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