Old Traders Didn't Gripe, Sue, Cross Dress Or Take Dr.gs

1. 'I am surprised at this generation of traders. When we were laid off in the oil-related recession of the 1970s, we did not gripe, condemn our employers, sue, fuss, scream, cross dress, nor take drugs to enhance our trading prowess. We understood the rules of the game and the personal risks. When the end came, we knew that, as professionals, that you were supposed to stifle your bitterness, control your self doubt and go out and try to get another job. Markets go up, markets go down. This is capitalism. Perhaps these youngsters would prefer another economic model'.

2. 'The real fault lies with management for:

a) putting the wrong type people in charge of risk and the management of products

b) creating a system where 'modestly' compensated (and overstretched) risk management functions were under intense pressure to issue worthless reports that all was well and

c) relentlessly publicly reinforcing these two errors.

And our trader's apology should have read: 'I had no idea what I was really doing, and nobody told me to stop. I am sorry'.

3. 'A nice term doing the rounds is that the banks have 'privatised the gains and socialized the losses'.

4. 'People seem to be blaming these traders for taking risks and losing all this money. Can any of them truthfully say, however, that if someone came up to them and offered them stupidly large amounts of somebody else's money to take big risks (in a completely legal way), that they would have turned it down ? If you want to shell out blame, then point the finger at the senior management who were responsible for risk management, and the mortgage originators who clearly didn't do their jobs checking that the ultimate borrowers could afford to repay those home loans back'.

5. 'Those 'low-income Americans who took out those home loans that they couldn't afford to repay' were advised by their bankers that they would have no problem refinancing when the variable rates kicked in. And, as for those traders, just because everyone was doing it is a flimsy defense, and doesn't make it right'.