There is no doubt the global financial crisis will make 2009 a hard year for many. Yet, despite all this, perhaps the downturn may cause us to reflect on more meaningful matters.
This crisis, we are told, was caused by irresponsible lending by banks on an enormous scale. When the inevitable happened, and borrowers defaulted, the banks were left with humongous losses. The result, no money available for would-be homeowners and genuine businesses, and the taxpayer (ie you and me) left to pick up the (substantial) bill. But even this highly compacted summary may be reduced even further to two words -Â sheer greed! (more…)