Banks back to bankers

Money is our defense against poverty and threat of poverty. Money is the gate to prosperity, luxury and power. Earning, administering and spending money are matters of grave concern for most people. Where appetite for money and appetite for risk-taking combine, we get speculation. Human nature being what it is, we should accept that. Speculators are there, they will stay and they fulfill a function. Like predators in the food chain. Now they act like they own the place. Casino capitalism is the financial system being hijacked (again) by the speculators. Speculators are very clever. And very dumb at the same time. They hunt in flocks, they copy-cat and they live by the day. There is one group of people more money-wise than the speculators: their traders. They get ample bonuses when they gain, they pay nothing when they lose.
There is a simple solution to the public indignation of bonuses and a large part of the volatility of the financial markets: pay bonuses of any size, but pay them in company stock, not in stock options, and pay them in stock that can only be sold after five years, even when people have left the company before. Bank people should become co-owners. Even if bank managers and bank staff owe only a few percent of the stock, all shareholders will know it is in their interest to have good dividends and stock appreciation on the long run. Employee-ownership should go by a foundation managing the stock and giving certificates to the employees. Employees who need cash, can always borrow with the stock as a collateral, but the durability of the stock-ownership will make for a conservative appreciation.
We can trust bankers when they play with their own money, with slow money. Today, the traders and many bankers earn better than the investors and speculators they serve, and certainly much better than the shareholders they are supposed to serve.
When bankers depend on the longer-term value of their stock, we don't need to establish minimum capital requirements. Their own interest will take care of that.
Now regular stock-owning is less attractive tax-wise. So the 'best' people may leave. Let them. They probably go to your competitor. So the knife cuts both ways.

Of course, separation between retail banking and commercial banking is a good thing. And the compulsive overspending of governments has to be bridled. European countries shed crocodile tears about their national sovereignty weakened by a new pact. When you can still decide how you earn your money and what you spend it on, but you are limited in your overspending, is your personal sovereignty affected? Not at all. Only money junkies could complain.

True performance

There are four kinds of performers:

1. With a task that is bigger than their ego.
2. With an ego that is bigger than the task.
3. With a big ego matching a big task.
4. With a small ego matching a small task.

Type 4 is simple: weak competence and weak performance, which is made palatable by modest behavior and modest pay.
Type 2 is common: whatever the position, the performance is to advertise the person, to advance in power, money and career prospects. What task? Think Berlusconi. A lot of vanities and an often long wait for the bonfire.
Type 1 is rather common: when people really try to do a good job. At the very top it is less common: think Harry Truman.
Type 3 is overall less common: when a strong personality is needed for a heavy job. Think Churchill, possibly Kennedy.

In organizations with are cursed with type-2 leaders, type-1 people are forced out. Type-4 people remain, with a whole bunch of type-2 crowding in the higher layers.

A blog is an acceptable place to simplify. So here it goes: Technical people tend to be type 1, administrative people tend to be type-4. Commercial people tend to be type-3. If they are type-2, they will usually fail after a time. But some make it to the top.
Financial and legal types are both in the large-ego and small-ego types. The small-ego types fill the many staff functions, the large ego-types make it to the top. As they usually have neither technical nor commercial competence, they engage in massive, impressive change projects that will show their real effect after they have gone over to their new positions: mergers, acquistions, selling off parts of the organization, reorganizations, efficiency drives. It's mean people that make lean organizations. Before you know it, the last people that have practical knowledge of products and clients are banished from the board room.

Whatever the size of your ego, try to make it bigger. As long as your mission in life is commensurate with your sense of self. To look for true challenges is not enough. Your challenge should be meaningful as well.  How many dragons have you slain sofar?
Now be careful before positioning yourself as a knight on a white horse. Many a knight has entered the cave, slain his dragon and married the princess, only to discover afterward that the princess was the real dragon and that the dragon did humankind a favor by keeping her behind lock.
Without common sense and practical wisdom any ego may be too big, any task may be too big. Go for rewarding and meaningful performance. And retain a sprinkle of dissatisfaction always. Nobody is perfect. (Famous last words.)