Every Banker Hanged From a Lamp Post

Once, when Alasdair MacIntyre was asked what elements of Marxism he retained after his conversion to Catholicism, he replied, "I would still like to see every banker hanged from the nearest lamp-post".

Country bumpkin that I am, I wondered why he would hate bankers so much. The only bankers I ever knew just worked in the branch down the street. Well, now we have Goldman Sachs to illustrate the point.

It [Goldman Sachs] has to figure out a better way of dealing with politicians, the press, and the general public than its current like-it-or-lump-it strategy. I fear the traders running the place do not understand that, while they are the biggest and baddest players in the global financial markets, who have to apologize or explain themselves to no-one, they don't control the game. Politicians and regulators do. (And they answer, at least indirectly, to the general public.) These are the people they have to appease. Or at least not piss off. These are the people who pay attention to Goldman's public communications strategy.