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all bankers do is jeer at solutions

One of the most inexplicable things about the banking crisis is that though the industry claims to employ the cleverest people in the world and pays them accordingly at no point in the 15 months since the collapse of Lehman have its leaders taken any responsibility for reform.

One would have thought that, having had to endure the humiliation of being rescued by the taxpayer from complete financial ruin, those running the banks would have realised things had to change and that business as usual was not an option. One might also have expected more than just a passing interest in getting it right next time. But apparently not. They make no effort to fill the policy vacuum themselves but have the gall to slag off anyone else who tries.

They have had long enough to think about this and live and work near enough each other — not to mention rubbing shoulders at gatherings such as this week's egofest in Davos — to swap opinions, so it beggars belief that not one of them thought they should work out an acceptable, collective package of reforms to offer up as a solution to politicians and regulators. They, after all, are the people on the inside. They claim to be intelligent. They are paid to understand what is happening. They ought to be best positioned to give a candid diagnosis of the problems and pressure points which caused the melt-down and spell out the changes which would stop it happening again