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page 163 chapter V
banks in the demise of companies with a long tradi-
tion, such as Switzerland‘s Swissair. It is to be hoped
that the current financial market crisis – the cause of
which was mortgages being granted in almost uncontrolled
fashion and then passed on to the capital market
in attractive packaging – will turn out to be the sorry
climax. It doesn’t take much imagination to get
from “money makes the world go round” to “money
makes the world go down”. In this respect, the banks
themselves unfortunately make a substantial contribution
by providing spectacular proof of real failure.
The question now arises as to the why’s and wherefore’s.
Why are banks so often the subject of criticism,
and why are they (and also other companies) accused
of failure?
There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, because
they really have failed. On the other hand, however,
I would like to make the critical remark at this point
that some of the criticism is based on ignorance of the
facts, and that it is, unfortunately, sometimes simply a
question of creating a stir. If a corporation generates a
return on equity of 25 %, that sounds simply indecent to
non-economists. But anyone who can read a balance
sheet realises that the equity of the company in question
accounts for less than 2 % of the balance sheet total.
However, the chief financial officer of a corporation is in
a position to influence this indicator almost at will by
controlling the proportion of outside capital.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of any country where all
the pupils of a year are taught economics – although
economics affects every one of us, and particularly be-