In the sea of crisis we find ourselves permanently swimming in at the moment, two particular issues are rising up like tidal waves ready to engulf our society.
The first - the Libor scandal - exemplifies once again how scandalously our financiers behaved, how toothless our regulation is and how shameless the industry remains, despite causing a worldwide financial meltdown.
The second - the crisis of PFI and the threat to public institutions of the private debt it has brought them - exemplifies the worst aspects of short-term political decision-making and not-as-clever-as-they-though accountancy methods used for political not financial reasons.
Both scandals are the direct result of policies implemented under Tory governments, but then enthusiastically embraced by Labour.
Political blame can be shared around, but political solutions remain to be fought over. These need to be varied. They need not just to change the culture of the future in both government procurement and our financial industries, but also seek reparations for those most affected.
Those who are bearing the brunt of the cuts caused by the crash and who most use the services threatened by PFI debt.
The scandals are the result of the failings of our so-called "elite". But it won't be the elite struggling with higher mortgage costs or finding their health care suffering as cuts are made to finance debts.
Those who suffer will be the rest of us, the ones trying to make ends meet. The small businesses who found borrowing costs inexplicably raised thanks to the Libor fiddlers. The sufferers finding fewer nurses and less respite care thanks to cuts in services to pay for the financing of debt up to six times what it would have been under traditional capital borrowing.
Perhaps these two scandals bursting through at the same time has happened for a reason. Because - thanks to my friend Neil Wigglesworth (@Neilwigg on Twitter) I have a plan.
A plan to save the hospitals and other public services from the debt they are accruing because politicians didn't want spending on their balance books. A plan that will not just ensure the banks pay for their crimes, but that ensures they pay for them over an extended period of time, not allowing them to forget so easily the price of their misdeeds.
At present, the fines Barclays have been given will be paid to the FSA. Which will mean savings for other banks and eventually Barclays too. This seems like a wasted opportunity.
Certainly, it can be said that Barclays are paying for their crimes, but the payments are not being used justly. They are not repairing the damage of the financiers. They are simply funding the continuation of the status quo.
I propose we set up a separate fund that these fines must be paid into. We could call it something catchy like the “Community Service” fund.
The fines should be paid over time, and must be counted on the balance sheets of the banks as debts. They should be a millstone: a reminder that they are not immune to justice.
The fund will then be used to pay off the crippling cost of the PFI contracts in existence (it should not be used to fund future PFI as that would be a perverse incentive to choose the wrong kind of finance model).
When the government bailed out the banks, there was much talk of the fact that the deal had privatised the profit and nationalised the debt. Under my scheme, we would be privatising the punishment and nationalising the repentance. This would truly be restorative justice in action.
Not that these fines alone should stop any other consequence of the discovery of the Libor scandal.
There should be prosecutions. There should be a full and immediate implementation of the Vickers recommendations. There should be a judge-led inquiry into the reckless culture of the banking industry and a change in culture to stop it happening again and again.
These payments won't stop the wrong doers being criminals.
But it will at least mean that they would start at last paying their debt to society.
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