There's been a lot of outrage in the past week over banks plans to hand out bonus's to employee's even though they have made huge losses and are in the middle of the biggest banking crisis the world has seen since the 1930's.
The problem with cutting the bonus's is that the people it's going to affect most are those at the bottom of the tree, the one's most likely to be in desperate need of their annual bonus. In most cases these aren't the people responsible for the huge losses, there the one's who have worked hard for the last year, met all their targets and done everything they can for the company. They're not the one's who've handed out loans to people who should never have got them or decided to merge with a company on it's last legs in the hope of bigger profits.
But that's not the point of my post. My point is, if these banks are determined to pay out huge amounts of money to their staff at these times why not impose some rules and use it to give the economy a bit of a kick.
Tell them they can have their bonus, but they have to spend most of it. £150mil of Loyd's money may not drag us out of recession but a few dozen managers buying British built Jaguars will give the car industry a (small) kick in the right direction and get some people back to work.
Splashing out a a new kitchen might not seem like the best way to deal with a recession but it's a weeks work for a fitter not to mention electricians and plumbers. I'm not sure of how it multiply's but every pound put into the economy is worth a lot more as it trickles down.
There was a suggestion a few weeks back (might have been Robert X. Cringley) that Tax dodgers be given an amnesty as long as they spend the equivalent amount on new products. Getting people spending could be the way out of this crisis but it looks like we're going to have to force people to do it. So why not force the people who are partly to blame to do their bit towards a solution
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