Why have the banks acted so irresponsibly?

Since 2008 we have seeing report after report of the way in which our banking institutions, and particularly their investment banking arms have acted in the most reprehensible and at times illegal way. According to the official story this is predominantly the result of simple greed. Bankers are paid extra-ordinary amount of money, predominantly in the form of annual bonuses that regularly exceed seven figures and often eight figures for senior bankers. However there is a problem with this story. Greed is certainly a driving factor in human evolution, but it is invariably tempered by a mid to long term view. In order for greed to be the primary driving force it would require highly intelligent and well educated people to all be acting as sociopaths with no concept of anything beyond the short term. This seems unlikely but not impossible. However there is a further wrinkle to this story. Banks don't operate in a vacuum. Being the driving force behind much of the Worlds economic growth and development, the banks themselves are intrinsically linked to the economic policy units of the Worlds developed economies. They are also linked to the international financial community through the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Central Bank and the various national Central Banks such as the Federal Reserve, The Bank of England and so on. In turns these are linked back to national Governments and International political associations.

Given these links it seems impossible that banks would operate in a way that risked their profits and success without some kind of guarantee that their rash decisions and risky trading positions will be protected, but why would this be the case? In any other commercial arena that features global business, even where this is closely allied to Government such as is the case with IBM, Microsoft, General Motors, Hyundai, Toyota and the like the company, whilst being supported by Government, if it reaches a point of financial crisis is largely on its own. Indeed, international law often requires that Governmental support for such companies is limited specifically to prevent anti-competition agreements and monopoly positions. This strongly suggests that the banks are operating under a separate and secret system. The level of protection and the scale of the bailout of failing banks has created a system under which every single tax payer in the major global economies is now in debt paying off the bank bailout, not just for the next few years but for the next four generations. Herein lies the likely reason for this rather strange situation.

For the last three hundred years there have moves by key figures within Royal houses, banking families and industrial leaders to create a society in which they and their associates are perfectly protected and where the working masses supporting the elite are completely subservient and unable to stand against the elite. Various methods have been attempted, from global conflict through empire to destroying trade unions and political movements that stood in their way, but they have been only partially successful. This new move has created a society where the primary concern of the majority of people is fear over the loss of employment, income, home and family and there is little time for concerns over politics or the machinations of the global elite as espoused by conspiracy theorists. Fear is the driving force in modern society, and as any social scientist or anthropologist will tell you, creating a society in fear is the first step in creating society that is totally controlled. Sure, bankers are greedy, but it makes more sense when you realise that their greed is being backed, approved and driven by a secretive powerful group aiming to control the World.