The
fallout from the banking collapse highlighted one overwhelming message……the
power that investment banks held over the Government. Investment banks simply
make too much money for them to be ignored and they create vast wealth for the
UK coffers. This wealth creates power……this then leads to the Government
conforming with their political policies and regulation that is very ‘friendly’
to investment banks.
Fast
forward a decade across various political promises of reform against this
power……exactly where are we?
Exhibit
A Your honour……BlackRock.
BlackRrock
are an investment company responsible for the investment of $5.7 trillion
($5,700,000,000,000)
A
recent freedom of information (FOI) request has uncovered that Blackrock held
14 meetings with the Treasury in 2017. While there is no suggestion that rules
governing how much access a company can have with current policymakers has been
broken, exactly why does an investment company need access to the Government
every 4 weeks?
And
that is just one company…… there are many, many more.
Exhibit
B Your honour……Ex-Government Officials.
BlackRock
has been the next calling point for a number of high-profile Treasury officials
in recent years.
George
Osborne last year started in a contractor role at the company in a four day a
month ‘research position’ earning him £650,000 a year.
Rupert
Harrison, the former chief of staff to George Osborne, joined BlackRock in
2016.
Another
ex-Treasury official, Antony Manchester joined BlackRock in 2017 to lead the
firm’s ‘Brexit position’.
Given
we live in a capitalist society (well, for now anyway), I’m all for a
successful Government on an economic level which creates an environment for
corporate success. But why does there seem to be an underground secret that big
city institutions have open door access to Government. Why is there seamless
career progression from Number 11 to city institutions?
The
lack of transparency creates concern……and we know where that all led a decade
ago.
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