Squids In: The mascot Goldman Sachs wished they never had

Martin Bowman, campaigns and policy intern

2010 is surely the year of the octopus, if controversially. The death threats that were sent to Paul the psychic octopus have shown the capacity of our bulbous eight-legged friends to galvanize public opinion. If harmless football score predictions fuelled such anger, let us hope that Paul was just a warm-up act for this next aquatic provocateur. Enter: the Giant Vampire Squid.

Being compared to a Giant Vampire Squid is not particularly desirable, but it’s probably another insult to add to the pile for investment banks like Goldman Sachs. The name was first given to them by the journalist Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone, saying that investment banks are like: “a giant vampire squid wrapped round the face of humanity”. The new economics foundation (nef), backed by a variety of groups including Compass and the Post Bank campaign, have picked up this neat little metaphor, and made it the basis of their fantastic new video, which I urge you to watch and shout / facebook / tweet to the hills:

www.giantvampiresquid.org/

The video challenges governments to stand up to banks, and to utter that elusive word: “reform”. At a time when we are being told “There is No Alternative” to public spending cuts, the regulation of the banks that caused the crisis seems to rarely feature on the agenda. In the run up to Christmas, it is truly the season for bankers to be jolly – nearly £7 billion will be paid out in City bonuses. £7 billion, you will remember, is more than the first wave of public spending cuts, and is the amount the UK has committed to bailing out the Irish banking system.

Yet the UK government is afraid to bring banks back in line. Why? Because banks are lobbying hard at the heart of government and threaten to pull the plug on UK investment. They also scapegoat public sector spending, and the politicians seem to have fallen for it.

The taming of the banks is the only way to avoid sleep walking into the next financial crisis – indeed, the current banking system IS the crisis. nef is challenging banks to consider their role: they should serve society and protect the environment, not be an end in themselves. Some of their visions for a better banking future include introducing a Robin Hood tax, breaking up banks so they are not “too big to fail”, separating risky financial activities and promoting more social and environmental banking. They are calling for a more transparent banking system; one where making financial services available to all is the priority and where the cartel of banks raising money for multinational corporations is put under scrutiny.

In an unregulated private sector, power accumulates to a few big companies and financial bodies – completely undemocratic and increasingly out of control. In the realm of the free market, the Vampire Squid is king.

The financial crisis is relatively well-known, but the Vampire Squid has many side-projects. In the early 1990s Goldman Sachs reached out one its tentacles and wrapped it around one of the roots of human survival – food.

Goldman Sachs was instrumental in creating a range of financial products which enabled rampant betting on food prices. Speculative money flooded in pushing food prices higher and higher. As Goldman Sachs pocketed $1billion from gambling on food prices last year, the poorest people in developing countries face unaffordable food prices and are pushed into further hunger, malnutrition and poverty.

The Vampire Squid is a timely reminder of this fact. And amputating its food tentacle is a vital step to bringing the whole animal under control. Let’s hope he faces a similar fate to the late Paul, Psychic Octopus (deceased).

Unlike Paul, the Giant Vampire Squid will not be missed.

Spread the news of the Giant Vampire Squid to your MP, and ask them what they are going to do to tame it:

www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/tame-the-vampire-squid