Citigroup Inc (C), Bankers & More: No Fix For This

Diamond was paid roughly $1 million per month during his tenure at Barclays. And his explanation for the crisis that cost him his job was not only that he didn’t know what was going on with LIBOR, but that he didn’t even know how LIBOR — an underpin of the banking system — worked.

That is fascinating to me.

It is true that no CEO can keep a watch on all its employees, and that there will always be bad apples.

But with banking, we see something much different: Executives proclaiming that they really had no idea how their businesses worked in the first place.

To me, that raises one big question: If they are too complex to manage, why are megabanks so weary of breaking themselves up into simpler and more manageable units?

There’s actually an easy answer to the question. As Sorkin writes, Diamond “still has more money than his grandchildren’s grandchildren will ever need.”

Heads, I win, get rich, and take the credit. Tails, I win, get rich, and proclaim ignorance. What a game!

The article Bankers: Still No Cure for Hypocrisy originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Morgan Housel.

Fool contributor Morgan Housel has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C).

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