There goes civilisation...

"2) People have accused me of naivety as to how risk should be managed

there is no discourse without an opinion.
i would be happy to be proved wrong, right or half right in arguing against your sentiments in person or on the forum.
and nobody said putting forward an opinion requires a set of moral values approved by the majority but if you wish to state an opinion you have to be prepared to either be wrong or for people to disagree with you.

i still think your grasp of the management of financial risks is lacking, i haven't seen any evidence to change my mind on that. I'm happy to be proved otherwise.

The banker-bashing that's been going on has been criticizing bankers for being incompetent and/or immoral.

Nobody denies the incompetence... they're all well aware that they've fucked up. I don't know what crack the risk managers were on when they thought it'd be a good idea to expose themselves to so much bad risk on such a large scale. 2 of my close friends who have lost their jobs because of it. One of my trader friends has had a nervous breakdown. My trader boyfriend (he's in equity derivs, btw, not credit, so he had nothing to do with the cause of this mess) is in a constant state of exhaustion because he's at work from 7:30 am to 10:30 pm 5 days a week. Believe me, the bankers know they've fucked up.

What I object to is the blanket accusation of "bankers are all wankers / greedy immoral bastards / selfish cunts".

I personally think financial markets are the biggest cosmic joke of all time... it's completely artificial and man-made, somebody went and made up a bunch of rules, and everybody decided to play along. Something is "worth" only as much as people are willing to pay for it. The markets are at the mercy of the mob. The mob is composed of individuals who want a good P&L, and don't think so far ahead as to consider the repercussions if their actions are multiplied by thousands or millions.

They're not immoral, they're just human. Human beings tend to learn their lessons after the mistakes have been made. For over a hundred years, people were burning coal, driving cars everywhere, not recycling, etc. Then we realized that carbon emissions are bad for the environment... oops. It's a bit too late, we're so deeply entrenched in carbon-emitting technologies that it's impossible to completely back out of it.

Somebody mentioned Primark earlier. Loads of people advocated the boycott of Primark after it emerged that they use sweatshop child labor. Key emphasis on after, not before. Do those people conduct background research into every single product they purchase to make sure it was produced ethically?

We as a species are inherently short-sighted, and we make some pretty whopping big mistakes. Often, people who suffer from those mistakes aren't the people who made them. It fucking sucks, but life isn't fair, it never has been, it never will be.

I admit that I have quite a Darwinian dog-eat-dog outlook on things. I come from a country that's seen some really tough times over the past couple hundred years. Very few things are given, everything must be earned and fought for, and one must always be prepared for the possibility that the good times won't last, for whatever reason. (Of course, when that happens, it's always somebody else's fault...)

In summary: bash some (not all) bankers for being incompetent if you like. But I do not believe their actions came out of deliberate disregard for the wellbeing of others. Their mistakes come out of a human failing that we are all guilty of.

Oh, and regarding greed: yes, the financial industry is fueled by greed. If you put money into a bank account that earns interest, or into a pension fund, hoping to earn something for doing nothing... that's greed.