"Letter to bankers: who will pay for you to be bailed out this time?

Jamil Chad

I live in a city that breathes money. Clean and dirty. Very dirty. Here in Geneva, we bump into you at school, in the park, at the pizzeria and in so many other places.

I do not accept and do not like generalizations. But there is one aspect that I have never been able to understand: after all, are you liberals or not?

I ask this because of the events of the last few days, involving Credit Suisse, but also other banks in the so-called "mature" economies.

In the US, last week, the Federal Reserve indicated that it made loans of US$ 300 billion to banks with cash problems. Only here in Switzerland, the financial institution that was going through difficult days received a bailout of US$ 50 billion, which would be enough for the UN to come to the rescue of 230 million people in humanitarian crises around the world for one year.

Of course, there is no way to let a bank of this size fail. These are banks classified as "too big to fail". That is, if they go bankrupt, it is the entire economy that succumbs.

But I ask myself: aren't you the ones who vote for politicians who defend a minimal state, little regulation, tax cuts for large fortunes, privatization and the opening of markets?

Aren't you the ones who insist on the thesis of meritocracy, like a religion that abandons those who don't serve the system?

I would also like to be classified as "too big to fail". Millions of people would also like to live a life in which they could be generously rescued if they slipped up in the management of their destiny. Or those who don't even dream of having a destiny and choose to dream of feeding their children.

But for them, markets get tense if there's any hint of more money.

Maybe you don't remember. But the last time the financial system melted down in 2008, governments came to your rescue. For this, they used resources from retirees, the middle class and the dreams of entire families.

To shoulder the debt of partly saving their banks, governments implemented real austerity policies that killed dreams and people.

You are certainly not the only ones responsible. Authorities kept pushing the debts to the following year, certain that nothing would happen. But happened.

If amnesia is intense in the financial world, I'm here to try to refresh my memory. At that moment of crisis, I traveled through Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain to discover the impact of austerity.

I saw how, in Athens, there was a lack of medicine. In the Canary Islands, operating rooms were only open in the morning and, in Catalonia, doctors were being instructed not to ask patients for tests. In Badalona, nurses revealed that they were instructed to discharge patients as quickly as possible. In Madrid, the substance abuse program suffered a 35% budget cut. Paterna eliminated the 24-hour ambulance service.

In the government of Castilla-La Mancha, the order was to cut pensions for widows. In Girona, drivers were facing a threat: traffic lights were turned off between 10 pm and 6 am to save money.

The Valencian Community has cut funding for music education and 62 conservatories have been threatened. In Galicia, there were no more free books for 25% of students. In the Catalonia region, 1,000 teachers were laid off and 33 of the 34 teacher training centers were closed. In Valencia, the city hall suspended the Film Festival.

In Madrid, state aid for cultural festivals was cut in half, as well as an 18% reduction in museum budgets. The state began charging nursery tuition fees and raising university fees. In total, 40 new taxes were created in the Madrid region alone.

For those people who suffered these cuts, there was no rescue. There was, yes, a request for them to tighten their belts, so that they could understand the difficult situation that the country was going through. To postpone the future.

I insist: you were not the only ones responsible.

But do you know what was the result of the financial crisis, the rescue of governments and the explosion of debt? The dismantling of part of the welfare state, disbelief in the political class, doubt about the ability of democracy to provide answers and the explosion of the extreme right, charlatans and populists.

More than a decade later, here we are again talking about bailing out banks. And I keep asking myself: and when will we save people?"

Democratic greetings,

Jamil Chad