Bankers say Jesus would have approved of fat paycheques
“Profit is not satanic,” Barclays chief executive John Varley said at the historic St. Martin-in-the- Fields church on London’s Trafalgar Square, one of several top executives to argue that Jesus would have approved of their pay packages.
Bloomberg reports:
The 53-year-old head of Britain’s second-biggest bank said banks are the “backbone” of the economy. Rewarding high- performing bankers with more pay doesn’t conflict with Christian values, he said. Varley was paid 1.08 million pounds ($1.77 million) and no bonus in 2008. …
True enough, maybe, but is the church the place to make the argument? Jesus wasn’t famous for his love of money-lenders. Wasn’t there something about chasing them out of the temple? …
Brian Griffiths of Goldman Sachs spoke at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Bloomberg reports, where he argued that “The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest…We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”
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Robert Hoge
Jeff,
I’m getting more and more convinced that Old Nick has taken early retirement sometime ago and has outsourced the operation to Mammon. Business has never been better, and the new approach, “Greed is Good,” etc. is so much more deft and attractive than the old one with its scary, bloodcurdling rites of selling your soul to the devil and what not.
Hope all is well with you.
Robert