¡Un Gallardón hebrio anda suelto!

Elogio financiero del colchón

Javier Ortiz
Público

Resulta que metes tus ahorros en un banco y, de repente, cuando quieres sacarlos (porque te hacen falta para lo que sea, o porque te da la gana, y a cuento de qué tienes que explicárselo a nadie), el banco te dice que tururú que te vi, que te esperes un par de años, como poco, porque carece de la liquidez necesaria para atender todas las peticiones de devolución de fondos que le está reclamando su clientela.

¡Es fantástico! Así que dejas en depósito tus dineros a una entidad supuestamente solvente que se compromete por escrito a que no sólo te los va a guardar con mucho cariño sino que incluso te dará algo por tu gentileza, y los jefes de la entidad supuestamente solvente realizan unos fantásticos negocios por todo el mundo con lo tuyo y con lo les han confiado otros panolis como tú –lo cual les permite embolsarse unos beneficios del copón, según ellos mismos declaran impúdicamente en público año tras año–, y cuando acudes a su ventanilla y les dices que te reembolsen lo que les has prestado se te mofan en las barbas, alegando que tienen autorización del Gobierno para no dártelo, porque les viene mal. A todos: a ellos y al propio Gobierno, por lo que parece. Aseguran que no tienen liquidez para pagar una cantidad que es casi clavada a la que ellos mismos han declarado como beneficios del pasado ejercicio. Vaya jeró.

En tiempos se hablaba mucho de los viejos avaros que escondían el dinero dentro del colchón de su cama. Tal vez haya que resucitar la práctica, aunque eso obligue a dos cosas: a tener colchones que puedan abrirse, como los viejos de lana… y a tener algún dinero que ocultar en ellos. Esto último, según van las cosas, puede ser lo más problemático.

Mano de Obra = mercancía (ahora ya sin tapujos)

Cuando te echan a la puerta del trabajo

Agentes privados entregan en mano las cartas de despido

GUSTAVO FRANCO

Público

El nuevo año comenzó mal para el personal de la fábrica de Pirelli en Manresa. El 21 de enero una docena de guardias privados se apostaron en la entrada de las instalaciones para entregar en mano a 257 empleados la carta de despido sin dejarles entrar.
Una práctica más propia de una película en blanco y negro que de las relaciones laborables del siglo XXI. La excusa de la empresa es que se querían evitar incidentes, pero los trabajadores no lo ven de la misma manera.

"No había condiciones para prever ningún problema", asegura Santiago Vidal, delegado sindical de CCOO. La negociación del Expediente de Regulación de Empleo (ERE) se inició en octubre, cuando en los Estados Unidos caía el dominó de bancos. Hasta que el 19 de enero, el 70% de la plantilla lo aprobó mediante referendum. Pero la crispación "llegó con la presencia de los seguratas", explica Emilio Ureña, de UGT. Habían aceptado en compensación 55 días por año y 51 mensualidades para los que abandonaran.

El día 21 y los siguientes la frustración devino en rabia. "La gente volvía llorando por la humillación, con el bocadillo debajo del brazo dispuestos a trabajar; ni siquiera nos permitieron la entrada", asegura indignado Luis, uno de los que se encontraba en la lista que los directivos entregaron a los guardias para que negaran el ingreso a los afectados por el recorte. Una docena de hombres "no armados", según dijo la multinacional italiana, aunque hubo quienes vieron porras, que en todo caso no se sacaron.

Salvaguardar las instalaciones

"Se contrató a una empresa que trabaja con la firma desde hace años y ofrece todas las garantías", manifestó un portavoz de Pirelli, porque "era prioritario salvaguardar las instalaciones y el personal". Según los trabajadores, uno de los despedidos intentó colarse y fue reducido por los guardias.

"Lógicamente, las relaciones laborales se verán afectadas para los que se queden", apunta Fernando Barbancho, jefe de estudios en Relaciones Laborales de la Universidad Barcelona.
Para el académico, el personal fue tratado "como un recurso material, no humano, menospreciado como persona". Este tipo de actuaciones ni siquiera es materia de estudio, porque "no es común". Barbancho destaca que "la forma del comunicar el despido no tiene nada que ver con la crisis, es una decisión de la empresa".

La única reacción de la Generalitat fue una llamada a la factoría de neumáticos expresando su malestar. "Hay mejores maneras", manifestó la consellera Mar Serna.

La “expulsión” de Luis Herrero de Venezuela, o del penúltimo esperpento del guión opositor y de sus comparsas de la derecha europea

Juan Carlos Monedero
Rebelión

No merece la pena dedicarle mucho tiempo: en España, una declaración similar a la de Luis Herrero le hubiera supuesto una acusación por parte de la fiscalía del Estado con el cargo de, cuando menos, "expresiones vejatorias, humillantes y atentatorias contra la dignidad y el honor" del jefe de Estado (Artículo 208, 490.3, 504 y 505 del Código Penal español). Enfrentaría, además, una petición de pena de cárcel que hubiera estado por encima de los tres años.

Que un periodista caracterizado por su tono faltón, chulesco y reaccionario haga en Venezuela lo que no podría hacer en España, es una señal más de cómo la derecha española sigue considerando la independencia de América Latina como una afrenta personal. La rabia profunda que muestran ante la recuperación de su soberanía y la defensa de su dignidad no son sino el reverso de esa arrogancia que pretende dictar desde el Norte los caminos del Sur.

Respóndanse a una simple pregunta: ¿Qué hubiera pasado en España si un diputado de, pongamos el Sinn Fein, hubiera venido a España invitado por algún grupo político abertzale y hubiera afirmado que:

“Es intolerable desde todos los puntos de vista democráticos y de defensa de los derechos humanos, que se puedan provocar situaciones de amedrentamiento, situaciones de violencia, de amenaza, como las que yo personalmente he escuchado"

¿Qué hubiera ocurrido si un Diputado europeo, pongamos que belga, francés o italiano, hubiera venido a España, invitado como acompañante electoral –con lo que implica de reserva y no implicación- y hubiera vertido opiniones parciales sobre asuntos directamente ligados a la consulta electoral –por ejemplo, la reforma constitucional que tiene España en su agenda-, además de poner en cuestión el compromiso del Gobierno o del Rey con los derechos humanos? ¿Qué hubiera ocurrido si hubiéramos tenido que escuchar a ese diputado afirmar:

“Y por lo tanto, quiero que sepan que la delegación del Partido Popular Europeo, que se encuentra aquí como invitado internacional para asistir a este proceso electoral, de un referéndum que (el Gobierno) ya perdió hace un año, no dejará en ningún momento de denunciar públicamente en todas las instituciones europeas un comportamiento que considera profundamente lesivo para la dignidad del ser humano”

¿Cómo hubiera reaccionado la tridentina radio de la Conferencia Episcopal de donde procede el eurodiputado Herrero si un político invitado por cualquier partido hubiera declarado a los medios durante el Gobierno de Aznar que:

“Permítanme decirle a todos los (españoles) que nos estén escuchando, que no pierdan de vista que son ciudadanos libres y que tienen que votar en libertad, que tienen que votar lo que quieran. Yo no estoy diciendo que voten ni que sí ni que no. Estoy diciendo que voten en libertad, y que jamás voten dejándose llevar por el miedo que premeditadamente un dictador (el Rey de España o el Presidente del Gobierno) está tratando de trasladar a su ánimo”.

Para terminar afirmando que la ampliación del cierre de los colegios electorales (en un país donde el pueblo no tiene tan sencillo acudir a los centros de votación), lejos de ser un apoyo a la soberanía popular y motivo de orgullo democrático se convierte en “temor a que pueda ser utilizada esa nocturnidad, digámoslo así, para tratar de hacer algún tipo de maniobra que no sea transparente y que no sea democrática”.

Evidentemente, ni el Gobierno ni el Parlamento ni los medios de comunicación hubieran tolerado a un extranjero lo que tampoco le toleran las reglas de juego democrático a un nacional.

Pero sabemos que de lo que se trataba era de hacer ruido. Como siempre antes de unas elecciones. Quisieron culpar a Chávez del asalto a la sinagoga de Caracas por parte de presuntos delincuentes –entre los que estaba el escolta personal del rabino-; quisieron culpar a Chávez de la represión a estudiantes universitarios publicando en los medios fotos de cargas policiales nada menos que en Alemania; quisieron culpar a Chávez de pretensiones dictatoriales presentando la ampliación de un derecho que tenemos en 16 países europeos –que cualquier cargo público pueda volver a postularse- como un paso más en la supuesta pérdida de derechos democráticos en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela.

La estrategia descalificadora contra Venezuela hiede. Y no caben medias tintas ni justificaciones para valorar comportamientos como los de Herrero. Las empresas españolas de medios de comunicación ya han empezado un nuevo pin-pan-pun contra Venezuela defendiendo una conducta, la del eurodiputado, que es directamente desestabilizadora y que las democracias europeas no tolerarían. Comportamientos ensayados que buscan, como ya hicieron durante el golpe de Estado de abril de 2002, tumbar la posibilidad en marcha para reinventar la democracia en nombre de los siempre excluidos.

Qué capacidad tiene la derecha para exportar basura fuera de sus fronteras, sea con operaciones Cóndor, revoluciones de colores, traslados de residuos o visitas desestabilizadoras. “Hay algo podrido en Dinamarca”, dice Hamlet. Habría cerca, seguro, algún eurodiputado convencido de poseer licencia para difamar.

En Venezuela, como en el resto de países que están reinventando la democracia, hay mucho todavía por hacer. Lo sabemos los que estamos comprometidos con ese sueño de, por y para los pobres. La fetidez hay que buscarla en el modelo que está haciendo agua en todo el mundo. El que representa el señor Luis Herrero. El aire que atraviesa América Latina sigue llenando los pulmones de aire fresco.

Vaticanadas

José Saramago
cuaderno.josesaramago.org

O vaticanerías. No consigo ver a los señores cardenales y a los señores obispos trajeados con un lujo que escandalizaría al pobre Jesús de Nazaret, apenas cubierto con su túnica de pésimo paño, por muy inconsútil que fuera y seguramente no lo era, sin recordar el delirante desfile de moda eclesiástica que Fellini, genialmente, colocó en Ocho y Medio para su y nuestro disfrute. Estos señores se suponen investidos de un poder que sólo nuestra paciencia ha hecho perdurar. Se dicen representantes de Deus en la tierra (nunca lo han visto y no tienen la menor prueba de su existencia) y se pasean por el mundo sudando hipocresía por todos los poros. Tal vez no mientan siempre, pero cada palabra que dicen o escriben lleva por detrás otra pegada que la niega o limita, que la disimula o pervierte. A esto ya muchos más o menos nos habíamos habituado antes de pasar a la indiferencia, cuando no al desprecio. Se dice que la asistencia a los actos religiosos va disminuyendo rápidamente, pero me permito apuntar que también es menor el número de personas que, aun no siendo creyentes, entran en una iglesia para disfrutar de la belleza arquitectónica, de las pinturas y esculturas, de todo ese escenario que la falsedad de la doctrina que lo sustenta al final no merece.

Los señores cardenales y los señores obispos, incluyendo obviamente al papa que los gobierna, no están nada tranquilos. Pese a vivir como parásitos de la sociedad civil, las cuentas no les salen. Ante el lento aunque implacable hundimiento de este Titanic que es la iglesia católica, el papa y sus acólitos, nostálgicos del tiempo en que imperaban, en criminal complicidad, el trono y el altar, recurren ahora a todos los medios, incluyendo el chantaje moral, para inmiscuirse en la gobernación de los países, en especial aquellos que, por razones históricas y sociales, todavía no han osado cortar las amarras que sieguen atándolos a la institución vaticana. Me entristece ese temor (¿religioso?) que parece paralizar al gobierno español siempre que tiene que enfrentarse no sólo a enviados papales, sino también a los “papas” domésticos. Y digo todavía más: como persona, como intelectual, como ciudadano, me ofende la displicencia con que el papa y su gente trata al gobierno de Rodríguez Zapatero, ese que el pueblo español eligió con entera conciencia. Por lo visto, parece que alguien tendrá que tirarle un zapato a uno de esos cardenales.

Te deseo

Te deseo primero que ames y que,

Amando, también seas amado.

Y que, de no ser así, seas breve en olvidar

Y que después de olvidar no guardes rencores.

Deseo, pues, que no sea así, pero que si es,

Sepas ser sin desesperar.

Te deseo también que tengas amigos y que,

Incluso malos e inconsecuentes, sean valientes y fieles,

Y que por lo menos haya uno en quien puedas confiar sin dudar.

Y porque la vida es así, te deseo también que tengas

Enemigos. Ni muchos ni pocos, en la medida exacta para que,

Algunas veces, te cuestiones tus propias certezas.

Y que entre ellos, haya por lo menos uno que sea justo,

Para que no te sientas demasiado seguro.

Te deseo además que seas útil, mas no insustituible.

Y que en los momentos malos, cuando no quede nada más,

Esa utilidad sea suficiente para mantenerte en pie.

Igualmente te deseo que seas tolerante;

No con los que se equivocan poco, porque eso es fácil,

Sino con los que se equivocan mucho e irremediablemente,

Y que haciendo buen uso de esa tolerancia,

Sirvas de ejemplo a otros.

Te deseo que siendo joven no madures demasiado deprisa,

Y que ya maduro, no insistas en rejuvenecer,

Y que siendo viejo no te dediques al desespero.

Porque cada edad tiene su placer y su dolor.

Y es necesario dejar que fluyan entre nosotros.

Te deseo de paso que seas triste,

No todo el año sino apenas un día.

Pero que en ese día descubras que la risa diaria es buena,

Que la risa habitual es sosa y la risa constante es malsana.

Te deseo que descubras, con urgencia máxima,

Por encima y a pesar de todo, que existen

Y que te rodean seres oprimidos

Tratados con injusticia, y personas infelices.

Te deseo que acaricies un gato, alimentes a un pájaro

Y oigas a un jilguero erguir triunfante su canto matinal,

Porque de esta manera te sentirás bien por nada.

Deseo también que plantes una semilla,

Por más minúscula que sea, y la acompañes en su crecimiento,

Para que descubras de cuántas vidas está hecha un árbol.

Te deseo, además, que tengas dinero,

Porque es necesario ser práctico.

Y que por lo menos una vez por año pongas algo

De ese dinero enfrente de ti y digas: 'Esto es mío',

Sólo para que quede claro quién es el dueño de quién.

Te deseo también que ninguno de tus afectos muera

Pero que, si muere alguno, puedas llorar sin lamentarte

Y sufrir sin sentirte culpable.

Te deseo por fin que, siendo hombre, tengas una buena mujer,

Y que, siendo mujer, tengas un buen hombre

Mañana y al día siguiente, y que cuando estéis exhaustos

Y sonrientes, hableis sobre amor para empezar de nuevo.

Si todas estas cosas llegaran a pasar,

No tengo nada más que desearte.

Victor Hugo

25 personalidades en el corazón de la crisis.

Este es un artículo publicado la semana pasada en el diario británico The Guardian, en el cual se habla, con nombres y apellidos, de algunas de las personalidades públicas y privadas, sobretodo de Estados Unidos y de Reino Unido, aunque sin olvidar al ya ex-primer ministro de Islandia Geir Haarde, de las cuales afirma que son culpables activos y directos de la actual situación de crisis mundial. Siento tener que colgarlo en inglés, cuando tenga tiempo lo traduciré y lo colgaré en español, pero por el momento quien no se apañe en ese indioma puede, al menos, utilizar el traductor que hay a la derecha o cualquier otro traductor online.

25 people at the heart of the mealtdown

Julia Finch, with additional reporting by Andrew Clark and David Teather
The Guardian, Monday 26 January 2009

The worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part. In the second part of a week-long series looking behind the slump, Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who have led us into the current crisis.

Who led us down the Road to Ruin?

Alan Greenspan, chairman of US Federal Reserve 1987- 2006. Only a couple of years ago the long-serving chairman of the Fed, a committed free marketeer who had steered the US economy through crises ranging from the 1987 stockmarket collapse through to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was lauded with star status, named the "oracle" and "the maestro". Now he is viewed as one of those most culpable for the crisis. He is blamed for allowing the housing bubble to develop as a result of his low interest rates and lack of regulation in mortgage lending. He backed sub-prime lending and urged homebuyers to swap fixed-rate mortgages for variable rate deals, which left borrowers unable to pay when interest rates rose.
For many years, Greenspan also defended the booming derivatives business, which barely existed when he took over the Fed, but which mushroomed from $100tn in 2002 to more than $500tn five years later.
Billionaires George Soros and Warren Buffett might have been extremely worried about these complex products - Soros avoided them because he didn't "really understand how they work" and Buffett famously described them as "financial weapons of mass destruction" - but Greenspan did all he could to protect the market from what he believed was unnecessary regulation. In 2003 he told the Senate banking committee: "Derivatives have been an extraordinarily useful vehicle to transfer risk from those who shouldn't be taking it to those who are willing to and are capable of doing so".
In recent months, however, he has admitted at least some of his long-held beliefs have turned out to be incorrect - not least that free markets would handle the risks involved, that too much regulation would damage Wall Street and that, ultimately, banks would always put the protection of their shareholders first.
He has described the current financial crisis as "the type ... that comes along only once in a century" and last autumn said the fact that the banks had played fast and loose with shareholders' equity had left him "in a state of shocked disbelief".

Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England. When Mervyn King settled his feet under the desk in his Threadneedle Street office, the UK economy was motoring along just nicely: GDP was growing at 3% and inflation was just 1.3%. Chairing his first meeting of the Bank's monetary policy committee (MPC), interest rates were cut to a post-war low of 3.5%. His ambition was that monetary policy decision-making should become "boring".
How we would all like it to become boring now. When the crunch first took hold, the Aston Villa-supporting governor insisted it was not about to become an international crisis. In the first weeks of the crunch he refused to pump cash into the financial system and insisted that "moral hazard" meant that some banks should not be bailed out. The Treasury select committee has said King should have been "more pro-active".
King's MPC should have realised there was a housing bubble developing and taken action to damp it down and, more recently, the committee should have seen the recession coming and cut interest rates far faster than it did.

Politicians

Bill Clinton, former US president. Clinton shares at least some of the blame for the current financial chaos. He beefed up the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act to force mortgage lenders to relax their rules to allow more socially disadvantaged borrowers to qualify for home loans.
In 1999 Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which ensured a complete separation between commercial banks, which accept deposits, and investment banks, which invest and take risks. The move prompted the era of the superbank and primed the sub-prime pump. The year before the repeal sub-prime loans were just 5% of all mortgage lending. By the time the credit crunch blew up it was approaching 30%.

Gordon Brown, [United Kingdom] prime minister. The British prime minister seems to have been completely dazzled by the movers and shakers in the Square Mile, putting the City's interests ahead of other parts of the economy, such as manufacturers. He backed "light touch" regulation and a low-tax regime for the thousands of non-domiciled foreign bankers working in London and for the private equity business.

George W Bush, former US president. Clinton might have started the sub-prime ball rolling, but the Bush administration certainly did little to put the brakes on the vast amount of mortgage cash being lent to "Ninja" (No income, no job applicants) borrowers who could not afford them. Neither did he rein back Wall Street with regulation (although the government did pass the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the wake of the Enron scandal).

Senator Phil Gramm. Former US senator from Texas, free market advocate with a PhD in economics who fought long and hard for financial deregulation. His work, encouraged by Clinton's administration, allowed the explosive growth of derivatives, including credit swaps.
In 2001, he told a Senate debate: "Some people look at sub-prime lending and see evil. I look at sub-prime lending and I see the American dream in action."
According to the New York Times, federal records show that from 1989 to 2002 he was the top recipient of campaign contributions from commercial banks and in the top five for donations from Wall Street. At an April 2000 Senate hearing after a visit to New York, he said: "When I am on Wall Street and I realise that that's the very nerve centre of American capitalism and I realise what capitalism has done for the working people of America, to me that's a holy place."
He eventually left Capitol Hill to work for UBS as an investment banker.

Wall Street/Bankers

Abby Cohen, Goldman Sachs chief US strategist. The "perpetual bull". Once rated one of the most powerful women in the US. But so wrong, so often. She failed to see previous share price crashes and was famous for her upwards forecasts. Replaced last March.

Kathleen Corbet, former CEO, Standard & Poor's. The credit-rating agencies were widely attacked for failing to warn of the risks posed by mortgage-backed securities. Kathleen Corbet ran the largest of the big three agencies, Standard & Poor's, and quit in August 2007, amid a hail of criticism. The agencies have been accused of acting as cheerleaders, assigning the top AAA rating to collateralised debt obligations, the often incomprehensible mortgage-backed securities that turned toxic. The industry argues it did its best with the information available.
Corbet said her decision to leave the agency had been "long planned" and denied that she had been put under any pressure to quit. She kept a relatively low profile and had been hired to run S&P in 2004 from the investment firm Alliance Capital Management.
Investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York attorney general among others have focused on whether the agencies are compromised by earning fees from the banks that issue the debt they rate. The reputation of the industry was savaged by a blistering report by the SEC that contained dozens of internal emails that suggested they had betrayed investors' trust. "Let's hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters," one unnamed S&P analyst wrote. In another, an S&P employee wrote:
"It could be structured by cows and we would rate it."

"Hank" Greenberg, AIG insurance group. Now aged 83, Hank - AKA Maurice - was the boss of AIG. He built the business into the world's biggest insurer. AIG had a vast business in credit default swaps and therefore a huge exposure to a residential mortgage crisis. When AIG's own credit-rating was cut, it faced a liquidity crisis and needed an $85bn (£47bn then) bail out from the US government to avoid collapse and avert the crisis its collapse would have caused. It later needed many more billions from the US treasury and the Fed, but that did not stop senior AIG executives taking themselves off for a few lavish trips, including a $444,000 golf and spa retreat in California and an $86,000 hunting expedition to England. "Have you heard of anything more outrageous?" said Elijah Cummings, a Democratic congressman from Maryland. "They were getting their manicures, their facials, pedicures, massages while the American people were footing the bill."

Andy Hornby, former HBOS boss. So highly respected, so admired and so clever - top of his 800-strong class at Harvard - but it was his strategy, adopted from the Bank of Scotland when it merged with Halifax, that got HBOS in the trouble it is now. Who would have thought that the mighty Halifax could be brought to its knees and teeter on the verge of nationalisation?

Sir Fred Goodwin, former RBS boss. Once one of Gordon Brown's favourite businessmen, now the prime minister says he is "angry" with the man dubbed "Fred the Shred" for his strategy at Royal Bank of Scotland, which has left the bank staring at a £28bn loss and 70% owned by the government. The losses will reflect vast lending to businesses that cannot repay and write-downs on acquisitions masterminded by Goodwin stretching back years.

Steve Crawshaw, former B&B boss. Once upon a time Bradford & Bingley was a rather boring building society, which used two men in bowler hats to signify their sensible and trustworthy approach. In 2004 the affable Crawshaw took over. He closed down B&B businesses, cut staff numbers by half and turned the B&B into a specialist in buy-to-let loans and self-certified mortgages - also called "liar loans" because applicants did not have to prove a regular income. The business broke down when the wholesale money market collapsed and B&B's borrowers fell quickly into debt. Crawshaw denied a rights issue was on its way weeks before he asked shareholders for £300m. Eventually, B&B had to be nationalised. Crawshaw, however, had left the bridge a few weeks earlier as a result of heart problems. He has a £1.8m pension pot.

Adam Applegarth, former Northern Rock boss. Applegarth had such big ambitions. But the business model just collapsed when the credit crunch hit. Luckily for Applegarth, he walked away with a wheelbarrow of cash to ease the pain of his failure, and spent the summer playing cricket.

Dick Fuld, Lehman Brothers chief executive. The credit crunch had been rumbling on for more than a year but Lehman Brothers' collapse in September was to have a catastrophic impact on confidence. Richard Fuld, chief executive, later told Congress he was bewildered the US government had not saved the bank when it had helped secure Bear Stearns and the insurer AIG. He also blamed short-sellers. Bitter workers at Lehman pointed the finger at Fuld.
A former bond trader known as "the Gorilla", Fuld had been with Lehman for decades and steered it through tough times. But just before the bank went bust he had failed to secure a deal to sell a large stake to the Korea Development Bank and most likely prevent its collapse. Fuld encouraged risk-taking and Lehman was still investing heavily in property at the top of the market. Facing a grilling on Capitol Hill, he was asked whether it was fair that he earned $500m over eight years. He demurred; the figure, he said, was closer to $300m.

Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin. Cioffi (pictured) and Tannin were Bear Stearns bankers recently indicted for fraud over the collapse of two hedge funds last year, which was one of the triggers of the credit crunch. They are accused of lying to investors about the amount of money they were putting into sub-prime, and of quietly withdrawing their own funds when times got tough.

Lewis Ranieri. The "godfather" of mortgage finance, who pioneered mortgage-backed bonds in the 1980s and immortalised in Liar's Poker. Famous for saying that "mortgages are math", Ranieri created collateralised pools of mortgages. In 2004 Business Week ranked him alongside names such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as one of the greatest innovators of the past 75 years.
Ranieri did warn in 2006 of the risks from the breakneck growth of mortgage securitisation. Nevertheless, his Texas-based Franklin Bank Corp went bust in November due to the credit crunch.

Joseph Cassano, AIG Financial Products. Cassano ran the AIG team that sold credit default swaps in London, and in effect bankrupted the world's biggest insurance company, forcing the US government to stump up billions in aid. Cassano, who lives in a townhouse near Harrods in Knightsbridge, earned 30 cents for every dollar of profit his financial products generated - or about £280m. He was fired after the division lost $11bn, but stayed on as a $1m-a-month consultant. "It seems he single-handedly brought AIG to its knees," said John Sarbanes, a Democratic congressman.

Chuck Prince, former Citi boss. A lawyer by training, Prince had built Citi into the biggest bank in the world, with a sprawling structure that covered investment banking, high-street banking and wealthy management for the richest clients. When profits went into reverse in 2007, he insisted it was just a hiccup, but he was forced out after multibillion-dollar losses on sub-prime business started to surface. He received about $140m to ease his pain.

Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide. Known as "the orange one" for his luminous tan, Mozilo was the chairman and chief executive of the biggest American sub-prime mortgage lender, which was saved from bankruptcy by Bank of America. BoA recently paid billions to settle investigations by various attorney generals for Countrywide's mis-selling of risky loans to thousands who could not afford them. The company ran a "VIP programme" that provided loans on favourable terms to influential figures including Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking committee, the heads of the federal-backed mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and former assistant secretary of state Richard Holbrooke.

Stan O'Neal, former boss of Merrill Lynch. O'Neal became one of the highest-profile casualties of the credit crunch when he lost the confidence of the bank's board in late 2007. When he was appointed to the top job four years earlier, O'Neal, the first African-American to run a Wall Street firm, had pledged to shed the bank's conservative image. Shortly before he quit, the bank admitted to nearly $8bn of exposure to bad debts, as bets in the property and credit markets turned sour. Merrill was forced into the arms of Bank of America less than a year later.

Jimmy Cayne, former Bear Stearns boss. The chairman of the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns famously continued to play in a bridge tournament in Detroit even as the firm fell into crisis. Confidence in the bank evaporated after the collapse of two of its hedge funds and massive write-downs from losses related to the home loans industry. It was bought for a knock down price by JP Morgan Chase in March. Cayne sold his stake in the firm after the JP Morgan bid emerged, making $60m. Such was the anger directed towards Cayne that the US media reported that he had been forced to hire a bodyguard. A one-time scrap-iron salesman, Cayne joined Bear Stearns in 1969 and became one of the firm's top brokers, taking over as chief executive in 1993.

Others

Christopher Dodd, chairman, Senate banking committee (Democrat). Consistently resisted efforts to tighten regulation on the mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He pushed to broaden their role to dodgier mortgages in an effort to help home ownership for the poor. Received $165,000 in donations from Fannie and Freddie from 1989 to 2008, more than anyone else in Congress.

Geir Haarde, Icelandic prime minister. He announced on Friday that he would step down and call an early election in May, after violent anti-government protests fuelled by his handling of the financial crisis. Last October Iceland's three biggest commercial banks collapsed under billions of dollars of debts. The country was forced to borrow $2.1bn from the International Monetary Fund and take loans from several European countries. Announcing his resignation, Haarde said he had throat cancer.

The American public. There's no escaping the fact: politicians might have teed up the financial system and failed to police it properly and Wall Street's greedy bankers might have got carried away with the riches they could generate, but if millions of Americans had just realised they were borrowing more than they could repay then we would not be in this mess. The British public got just as carried away. We are the credit junkies of Europe and many of our problems could easily have been avoided if we had been more sensible and just said no.

John Tiner, FSA chief executive, 2003-07. No one can fault 51-year-old Tiner's timing: the financial services expert took over as the City's chief regulator in 2003, just as the bear market which followed the dotcom crash came to an end, and stepped down from the Financial Services Authority in July 2007 - just a few weeks before the credit crunch took hold.
He presided over the FSA when the so-called "light touch" regulation was put in place. It was Tiner who agreed that banks could make up their own minds about how much capital they needed to hoard to cover their risks. And it was on his watch that Northern Rock got so carried away with the wholesale money markets and 130% mortgages. When the FSA finally got around to investigating its own part in the Rock's downfall, it was a catalogue of errors and omissions. In short, the FSA had been asleep at the wheel while Northern Rock racked up ever bigger risks.
An accountant by training, with a penchant for Porsches and proud owner of the personalised number plate T1NER, the former FSA boss has since been recruited by the financial entrepreneur Clive Cowdery to run a newly floated business that aims to buy up financial businesses laid low by the credit crunch. Tiner will be chief executive but, unusually, will not be on the board, so his pay and bonuses will not be made public.

...and six more than saw it coming

Andrew Lahde. A hedge fund boss who quit the industry in October thanking "stupid" traders and "idiots" for making him rich. He made millions by betting against sub-prime.

John Paulson, hedge fund boss. He has been described as the "world's biggest winner" from the credit crunch, earning $3.7bn (£1.9bn) in 2007 by "shorting" the US mortgage market - betting that the housing bubble was about to burst. In an apparent response to criticism that he was profiting from misery, Paulson gave $15m to a charity aiding people fighting foreclosure.

Professor Nouriel Roubini. Described by the New York Times as Dr Doom, the economist from New York University was warning that financial crisis was on the way in 2006, when he told economists at the IMF that the US would face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, oil shock and a deep recession.
He remains a pessimist. He predicted last week that losses in the US financial system could hit $3.6tn before the credit crunch ends - which, he said, means the entire US banking system is in effect bankrupt. After last year's bail-outs and nationalisations, he famously described George Bush, Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke as "a troika of Bolsheviks who turned the USA into the United Socialist State Republic of America".

Warren Buffett, billionaire investor. Dubbed the Sage of Omaha, Buffett had long warned about the dangers of dodgy derivatives that no one understood and said often that Wall Street's finest were grossly overpaid. In his annual letter to shareholders in 2003, he compared complex derivative contracts to hell: "Easy to enter and almost impossible to exit." On an optimistic note, Buffett wrote in October that he had begun buying shares on the US stockmarket again, suggesting the worst of the credit crunch might be over. Now is a great time to "buy a slice of America's future at a marked-down price", he said.

George Soros, speculator. The billionaire financier, philanthropist and backer of the Democrats told an audience in Singapore in January 2006 that stockmarkets were at their peak, and that the US and global economies should brace themselves for a recession and a possible "hard landing". He also warned of "a gigantic real estate bubble" inflated by reckless lenders, encouraging homeowners to remortgage and offering interest-only deals. Earlier this year Soros described a 25-year "super bubble" that is bursting, blaming unfathomable financial instruments, deregulation and globalisation. He has since characterised the financial crisis as the worst since the Great Depression.

Stephen Eismann, hedge fund manager. An analyst and fund manager who tracked the sub-prime market from the early 1990s. "You have to understand," he says, "I did sub-prime first. I lived with the worst first. These guys lied to infinity. What I learned from that experience was that Wall Street didn't give a shit what it sold."

Meredith Whitney, Oppenheimer Securities. On 31 October 2007 the analyst forecast that Citigroup had to slash its dividend or face bankruptcy. A day later $370bn had been wiped off financial stocks on Wall Street. Within days the boss of Citigroup was out and the dividend had been slashed.

Esta "vuelta al cole" no la anuncia el Corte Inglés

Vuelta a la escuela en Gaza. Las tarjetas que figuran sobre las mesas contienen los nombres de los niños asesinados por el ejercito israelí.