Banker's choice

The article “Is it a snake or rope? It is a banker” ( Business Line , January 9) makes interesting reading. Remember what Voltaire said of the Swiss banker: “If you see a Swiss banker jumping out of the window, follow him. There may be money down there.” If there be no money, the banker knows how to cushion his fall, not the investor.

Bankers, that too, investment bankers, don't seek to remove illusions; they strive to create them. This, they are able to do for the simple reason that if the investments don't bear fruit, the ones who suffer are the investors and shareholders of the bank, but seldom the bankers themselves.

When the US banks collapsed, the CEOs of the banks didn't become poorer; in fact, they got richer. Some paid themselves several millions. As a safeguard, they made the banks pay what they got from the government under the Toxic Assets Recovery Programme, which imposed restraints on executive compensation. Like they say, a banker never loses.

N. R. Krishnan

Chennai

Consumption rate

All the words in “India's blind love for cars” ( Business Line , January 7) ring a warning bell. Our cities have ceased to be a self-sustaining economic ecosystem, post-globalisation.

We are already treading the path of huge credit, similar to most countries. The only thing that keeps us going is the upper middle-class, which is consuming at unimaginable rates.

Nithya

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