If only my mother had understood the lucrative and guaranteed side of banking, I might be in a better profession today. Maybe not a better profession, but certainly a wealthier one.

Banking, as the 2008 crisis has revealed to us, is certainly the way to go. You get to loan out people’s money at huge multiples, to people who would never qualify to get it and if things go well, or at least while your books show they are going well, you pay yourself huge bonuses – not R100 000,00, R200 000,00 or R1 million but R20 million or in America $15 million. Then, when later it becomes apparent that the profits you were entering in your books on the basis of lending money to people who could never ever actually repay it, were somewhat fake, you then get to have the Government step in and give you millions to hold up your business because if your business crumbles, so does half of society, so they are forced to save you. When they have lent you enough interest-free money and you make some profits on that just by putting it back in Government bonds, you can then once again pay yourself huge bonuses.

I am sure that the catch to this whole system is that one has to be very well connected to actually get a banking licence and one needs a little bit of luck to get going in some real boom years so that you can grow quickly, because the whole principle is too big to fail, so you cannot afford to be a small bank and you do need to take high risks. A lovely job if you can get it and the fiscally responsible or prudent need not apply.