RE: Bob Diamond13 Sep 2018 14:46
Let's not forget as well that everyone was under pressure to deliver more returns on a quarterly basis - otherwise, stakeholders would put their money somewhere else, or push to replace / fire CEOs and other executives for other people who would implicitly (never openly) agree to take those risks.
That attitude filtered all the way down to basic individuals, pensioners etc. wanting more return for their savings to some extent.
A lot of what Bob Diamond said made sense to me.
The risk-taking and "returns now" culture had been in the making since the 1970s at least - "The Gods That Failed" by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson (the 2008 edition, not the 1998 one), albeit not perfect, gives a good description of how regulations set up in the aftermath of the 1929 crash had been gradually eroded from the 1970s (or before?) onward.