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Rich Ricci and the pernicious symbolism of the greedy banker Rich Ricci and the pernicious symbolism of the greedy banker
(5 months later)
Banker Rich Ricci looks the quintessence of the fat cat, the one percenter, the greed-is-good financier in this photograph. Ricci, who has just retired as head of the corporate and investment division of Barclays at 49 as the bank seeks to clean up its image, here gives off a moneyed attitude calculated to offend critics of the selfish bravado of high-flying bankers. Look at how arrogant this character seems.Banker Rich Ricci looks the quintessence of the fat cat, the one percenter, the greed-is-good financier in this photograph. Ricci, who has just retired as head of the corporate and investment division of Barclays at 49 as the bank seeks to clean up its image, here gives off a moneyed attitude calculated to offend critics of the selfish bravado of high-flying bankers. Look at how arrogant this character seems.
Ricci in his postmodern tweeds and cool shades is standing by one of 18 racehorses he owns. He can afford them: he recently earned close to £18m from selling his latest shares bonus. That was a public demonstration of the profits and profit motive of top bankers. Barclays is surely sending out a deliberate signal about its intention to reform by getting rid of this man – the fat cat in the hat. That's not my description – it is Rich Ricci's own self-caricature. The horse in the picture is called Champagne Fever.Ricci in his postmodern tweeds and cool shades is standing by one of 18 racehorses he owns. He can afford them: he recently earned close to £18m from selling his latest shares bonus. That was a public demonstration of the profits and profit motive of top bankers. Barclays is surely sending out a deliberate signal about its intention to reform by getting rid of this man – the fat cat in the hat. That's not my description – it is Rich Ricci's own self-caricature. The horse in the picture is called Champagne Fever.
The reason the picture got into the Mirror newspaper back in March, however, was that Ricci named another horse, Fatcatinthehat, in what appears to be a gleeful allusion to The Mirror quoting the Labour MP John Mann, of the Treasury select committee, who called the horse's name an "insult" that "shows how out of touch these bankers are." So now Rich Ricci is paying the price for his insults after a fashion: he is not exactly walking away from Barclays a poor man. Yet it's all too simple, isn't it? You feel that, don't you? Image and reality never just fit together like this. Pictures lie.The reason the picture got into the Mirror newspaper back in March, however, was that Ricci named another horse, Fatcatinthehat, in what appears to be a gleeful allusion to The Mirror quoting the Labour MP John Mann, of the Treasury select committee, who called the horse's name an "insult" that "shows how out of touch these bankers are." So now Rich Ricci is paying the price for his insults after a fashion: he is not exactly walking away from Barclays a poor man. Yet it's all too simple, isn't it? You feel that, don't you? Image and reality never just fit together like this. Pictures lie.
In ridding itself of Ricci, the bank that was caught out in the Libor scandal is casting away a mythic image of wickedness, an over-the-top cartoon villain – a scapegoat. The reaction to this picture does not show the truth about fatcatinthehat bankers. It shows how crass today's mood of "banker bashing" is, how superficial as a critique of capitalism, and how easy it is for banks to elude hunters who think a fox always wear shades and flashes its money around and has the ludicrously apposite name Rich Ricci.In ridding itself of Ricci, the bank that was caught out in the Libor scandal is casting away a mythic image of wickedness, an over-the-top cartoon villain – a scapegoat. The reaction to this picture does not show the truth about fatcatinthehat bankers. It shows how crass today's mood of "banker bashing" is, how superficial as a critique of capitalism, and how easy it is for banks to elude hunters who think a fox always wear shades and flashes its money around and has the ludicrously apposite name Rich Ricci.
The rage we might feel at this picture of ill-gotten, crudely displayed wealth is unfortunately mired in a history of hatred. Yes I know – asking for sensitivity towards bankers? Yet while other groups assert the right to be offended, loathing bankers is held to be OK. Is it, really, that OK? For a glance through the story of political images reveals that the kind of feelings this picture might arouse are actually highly suspect and even dangerous. Images of grotesque "capitalists" were churned out by the Soviet Union. In a Soviet propaganda poster from the 1920s, a fat cat in a hat is driven down onto the ground by the force of socialist truth being written in red on a wall. The capitalist wears a suit that his corpulent frame barely fits into. He has a top hat. He truly is a fat cat – in a hat.The rage we might feel at this picture of ill-gotten, crudely displayed wealth is unfortunately mired in a history of hatred. Yes I know – asking for sensitivity towards bankers? Yet while other groups assert the right to be offended, loathing bankers is held to be OK. Is it, really, that OK? For a glance through the story of political images reveals that the kind of feelings this picture might arouse are actually highly suspect and even dangerous. Images of grotesque "capitalists" were churned out by the Soviet Union. In a Soviet propaganda poster from the 1920s, a fat cat in a hat is driven down onto the ground by the force of socialist truth being written in red on a wall. The capitalist wears a suit that his corpulent frame barely fits into. He has a top hat. He truly is a fat cat – in a hat.
Some may think Russian revolutionary art is telling it like it is, here. But millions of people died in Stalin's Russia by execution or being worked to death in slave labour camps, and the slaughter was justified by exactly the hatred of fat cats this caricature promotes. Not convinced? Those who are sentimental about the Soviet Union may care to move to Hitler's Germany. In a Nazi picture , a fat cat financier sits on a massive bag of money (it is marked geld) in the stock exchange (there is a sign saying borse). He is once again so corpulent he's crammed into his suit. The only difference from the Russian picture is that he has coarsely exaggerated "Jewish" features – this fat cat represents Jewish domination of finance, in the Nazi imagination.Some may think Russian revolutionary art is telling it like it is, here. But millions of people died in Stalin's Russia by execution or being worked to death in slave labour camps, and the slaughter was justified by exactly the hatred of fat cats this caricature promotes. Not convinced? Those who are sentimental about the Soviet Union may care to move to Hitler's Germany. In a Nazi picture , a fat cat financier sits on a massive bag of money (it is marked geld) in the stock exchange (there is a sign saying borse). He is once again so corpulent he's crammed into his suit. The only difference from the Russian picture is that he has coarsely exaggerated "Jewish" features – this fat cat represents Jewish domination of finance, in the Nazi imagination.
I am not saying that, if you find this picture confirms a prejudice against bankers, you are a Stalinist or Nazi. But I think it should trouble us that our kneejerk hostility towards a group of people, our readiness to blame them for all western society's current ills, echoes two of the most murderous forms of hatred that have ever existed. And it all goes back to medieval antisemitism. In the Christian west, contempt for financiers goes back to the middle ages when Christians were forbidden the sin of "usury" and money lenders were seen as wicked Jews. This picture tempts us to make common cause with a dark history of prejudice and unreason. We should keep our economic debates impersonal.I am not saying that, if you find this picture confirms a prejudice against bankers, you are a Stalinist or Nazi. But I think it should trouble us that our kneejerk hostility towards a group of people, our readiness to blame them for all western society's current ills, echoes two of the most murderous forms of hatred that have ever existed. And it all goes back to medieval antisemitism. In the Christian west, contempt for financiers goes back to the middle ages when Christians were forbidden the sin of "usury" and money lenders were seen as wicked Jews. This picture tempts us to make common cause with a dark history of prejudice and unreason. We should keep our economic debates impersonal.
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