Unrepentant Bankers

Andrew Ross Sorkin confirms what most of us have long suspected:

One of the frustrating parts of researching my book came when I finally got to ask the question of Wall Street chief executives and board members that you just raised: Do you have any remorse? Are you sorry? The answer, almost unequivocally, was no. (Or they just didn’t answer.) They see themselves as just one part of a larger problem, with many constituencies to blame.

Many of the most senior members of management on Wall Street now consider themselves “survivors,” as if they were cancer survivors or something. That’s the word they use. While many of them are self-aware enough to politely nod at the notion that they received help and were part of the problem, they seem reluctant to acknowledge they were “rescued” or “saved.”

One of the key drivers of the crisis was the hubris and general lack of humility of senior bank executives. This is connected to the issue of executive pay: almost everybody thinks he deserves what he’s earning. But the only way you can deserve an eight-figure pay package is if you’re really on top of what’s going on in your bank. Ergo, everybody thought they were on top of what was going on in their banks, even when they weren’t; lower pay and more humility would have helped enormously in curtailing some of the most egregious excesses.

If bank executives (with the notable exception of John Reed) see no need to apologize for destroying the global financial system, they are still part of the problem and are very unlikely to be part of the solution. Which bodes ill for the future.

Comments

[JeffDB:]

Perhaps that lack of self-understanding or self-criticism is a part of human nature, or at least a common failing. If I remember correctly a survey several years ago showed better than 90% of drivers consider themselves better-than-average to much-better-than-average drivers. That was true even of drivers with multiple tickets and accidents. There was always a good reason/excuse for those incidents. It wasn't really their fault.

Similarly, prisoners typically don't consider themselves at fault for their predicament. Most feel they did nothing wrong. They were framed, or more commonly justified in doing whatever it was that got them convicted.

As a species we seem to be pretty adept at rationalization. At least we got that going for us. ;)

Nov 11 03:21 PM

[john s. gordon:]

well you can't really expect the masters of the universe to have any humility can you?
> jack

Nov 11 04:27 PM

[Moon Kil Woong:]

It is funny how they seem to take all credit for good results yet shun any bad results. Bank executives have more power in sculpting their earnings due to lax accounting rules than any other industry. I fail to believe that they had no knowledge of the mounting bad results beforehand and are not responsible. Rather than acting like kindergarteners trying to pass the blame, I would respect a bank executive that owned up to their own failings.

Nov 11 10:58 PM

[a. palmer jr.:]

I blame government for a little bit of the problem too. Weren't they forcing some of these housing loans on the system that they should have known were probably not gonna be paid back? Don't get me wrong on this, I want to blame everyone that was involved, not just some of them. The bankers and everyone else that was involved in the crisis should have immediately had their pay cut back to minimum wage for at least 2 years.

Nov 12 09:40 AM