A lone banker speaks up for his profession
The Economist provides a plaintive squeak amidst the clamour of banker bashing. On the letters page of a recent edition of the magazine, we've found the following missive, written by one Stephen Mooney.
'SIR
Regarding new levies on bank bonuses, you argue "that it is fair for the taxpayer to claw back the huge subsidy that all banks have enjoyed" ("The real windfall, December 19th). Did this subsidy come, perhaps, from the "20-27% of all corporation-tax receipts" that financial companies paid in the decade before the crisis ("Foul-weather friends", December 19th)? Or was this subsidy drawn partly from the longstanding 45% tax on bankers' bonuses, which has risen to 77.5% this year?
Regarding the suffering "taxpayer", are you referring, by chance, to the top 10% of income-earners, who pay 70% of the total income-tax burden? Maybe the banks and their employees are simply "clawing back" a small fraction of the huge taxes they have paid all these years.
Stephen Mooney
London'
We're not entirely sure the Stephen Mooney in question is, in fact, a banker. Having scoured the web, we can find only one Stephen Mooney working in London financial services - a manager at the FX Corporation, and they inform us he no longer works there.
