Barclay's bank profit falls by 3% to

I disagree with this, far too socialist for my liking

That said, I don't know the details of Barclays, so maybe its a loss, but the bank has performed better than expected, and it could have been a huge loss? But forgetting about the individual bank, it's the sentiment I don't agree with.

A lot of us here are running businesses. Taking out the flexibility argument and the feeling of working for yourself or being the boss, the harsh reality is, it's bloody hard graft.

As a business owner or employer, you will work a dam site harder than the average employee, you will have an awful lot more responsibility, stress, pressure etc. So unless you are a saint, you are doing all this for a financial gain.

If you have a particularly good year or quarter, then no doubt you will give yourself a better dividend as a reward for all the hard work you've put in.

Now imagine someone coming along and saying, nope, you can't earn any more. Thats it, regardless how well you do, generating revenue, offering job security for your workforce. It's hardly going to you an incentive or stimulate you into bigger and better things.

Of course employees that have done well and gone the extra mile should receive a bonus if it is genuinely earned, and the same system should go all the way to the top, regardless of salary.

Why treat banks or public companies any different? All the previous issues have been flagged, the system was out of control, the financial services sector imploded in a frenzy of greed and power.

But from the ashes, lets reward star performing bosses who are sifting through the mess and turning these huge corporations round and making the hard decisions I certainly wouldn't want to.

I'd sooner have a banks senior management performing well, and motivated, looking forward and trying to stabilse and secure the remaining workforce, rather than an unmotivated one, that will spell more doom and gloom and potentially put more homeless on the streets.

As obscene as these bonus payments may seem, if you were a banker would you take the moral high ground and turn down any bonus? Nope just like the rest of us

I would agree with this however, the recession started because the banks were lending money to people who could not afford to pay, they were giving out subprime mortgages and because the bank managers were selling these mortgages they were receiving a bonus for every one they sold.

Investors would then come along and buy this debt, because they had bought the debt they then needed to make a profit on it, the only way they could make a profit would be to increase the interest rate at which they were charging the mortgage lender.

The mortgage lender could no longer afford the mortgage (They could hardly afford it in the first place, hence the reason they were buying 100% mortgages), the mortgage lender then can not afford to live in the house they bought so has to move out, leaving the property deserted and in many cases the mortgage lender filing for bankruptcy, and in some cases putting families on the streets.

The houses have then been left deserted for a number of months or even years, and have now become run down, the banks go to sell the property however the property is now worth no where near what was paid for it as the condition is so bad, this along with falling house prices resulted in the banks selling at a loss.

If the bank managers were not being so greedy in the first place this would not have happened, it made families homeless, fair enough giving them a bonus if they perform well, but only if it is not going to have an affect like selling all of these subprime mortgages did.

Yeah, I know it easy for me to say they should turn it down and give it to charity, but I'm sure if the majority of people (including myself) were faced with this situation it would be hard to turn down that amount of money.

Around 7 or 8 years ago I had over

I agree with this, but I also think it takes two to tango, they should not let you rack up so much debt, it's like these payday loans, I read an article of some bloke that took out a payday loan to go on a night out with his mates, he took out about

There is currently a television advert by a loan company, which after the glossy advert clearly shows that the APR will be 4214%. Although I understand why people might sign up to these short term loans (30 days in this case) the majority of people who will be applying for this will already be up to their knecks in debt anyway, so they must take responsibility for their own existing debt before taking on more.

Yes well, this is where the government should step in and limit the APR on loans like these, they are praying on the vulnerable, you will get some people that just go to these payday loan companies to pay for a new Playstation or a night out or something, but I bet there are also people that have no choice and need it just to buy the essentials.

Absolutely, and no one will deny that the system was flawed, bonus's were obscene and the whole thing revolved on greed and bad judgement.

But that was then, it's time to start looking forward, and for that we need the Hestors of this world to salvage, rebuild and put these businesses on the right path. To get people of this caliber you need to reward them.

There's been plenty of shame in the financial services, and I'm certainly no fan of the banks, but I'm really looking forward to the economy finally moving forward, and for the bonus and witch hunt hysteria to become tomorrows chip wrappers.

The worlds banks will be under the spotlight for a long time to come, so I doubt we will see a return to crazy sub prime chaos as before, but for purely selfish reasons, I want the UK to be seen as a good place to do business. The more businesses that are expanding and doing well means more growth for all of us.