Rating 4 out of 5 (Highly platitudinous)

We're in danger of thinking that greed explains the current financial crisis. Is it really possible that entire boards of bankers were just too greedy and stupid? Can this whole thing really be explained by believing that these highly experienced and highly skilled executives didn't actually have a clue about the risk of giving 125% mortgages to people with no income? Is is really credible that such highly paid financiers could have taken such terrible risks with other people's money? As they are forced to retire in comfort in their multi-million pound mansions with guaranteed pensions, these are some of the questions that we must all reflect upon.

As a Reverend Canon Doctor and an Anglican Priest, let me just assure you that it is all the fault of the risk management profession. These slimy snake oil merchants deceived the noble and worthy bankers, whose sole aim was to safeguard the savings of widows and orphans, into believing that all they had to do was write a Risk Register, put it on a Powerpoint slide, and then everything would be under control.

How are we to change the behaviour of bankers? Alan Greenspan gave us the answer. When asked about the crisis he remarked, "Oh, shit!" In this sense, financial risk is like religious fundamentalism, or the passion of the second bit of the Invisible Magic Friend made incarnate. I trust my solution is clear.

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