Guys ..
we put the blame for this credit crunch squarely on the greed of the banks, aided & abetted by government & its regulators. Someone, I forget who, a Senior regulator, once said on a programme: "If everyone has a mortgage & we control the interest rates, then we effectively control how much people have in their pockets to spend" (paraphrased).
Ok, people can be daft, they all want money, who doesn't? That's why we work. Everyone wants a nice home with lots of lovely stuff in it. Billions is spent on advertising telling us this what we should have, almost as a right. Not enough is earned to buy this stuff so money is borrowed.
The banks see lots of profit, in lending this money. At one time, you had to show that you could afford to pay this money back but bank greed soon put a stop to that! We have all been bombarded with a relentless stream of offers of credit; loans, cards, accounts, mortgages-with Self Certification being at the top of the scandal list.
Just about any form of credit that can be imagined has been dangled in front of everyone's noses, often without a hope of ever being paid back. The government has taken its cut of this greed in many forms, sometimes even encouraging it for its own ends.
The regulators have turned many blind eyes to the profit drive schemes of the banks. If you can come up with yet another money making scheme then you take a massive bonus along with a fat salary.
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**Anyone with even a little noggin could see that all this could not last! Its just an impossible situation! Now the proverbial do-doos has hit the fan. Who is going to end up paying?
Yup, us! Again! I think that these greedy banks should have been allowed to go under but with the savings of depositors safeguarded. after all, that money must be somewhere! these greedy institutions need strict lessons learnt. That way, we might be able to prevent this from happening again. But I doubt it. Greed has become a way of life. Much for a few, a little for the many.