Money makes the world go round, so the saying goes. But what really makes it go around is debt. It’s what caused the global financial crisis.
When we look at massive, ruthless banks like Goldman Sachs, playing with billions without caring what happens next—or countries like Greece, drowning in debt it cannot pay off—it’s easy to think that the problem is so big, we can’t do much about it.
But big pictures are made up of millions of little ones. You, your neighbours, your community. The choices we make every day decide whether we’ll have another global financial crisis or not. I know. I work in a bank.
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Crisis, what crisis?
American authorities have charged Wall Street mammoth Goldman Sachs with fraud. British and German authorities want to know more, too.
President Obama is promising to toughen banking regulations. These include shining a light on the murky world of derivatives, the inter-twined financial products so complicated they almost brought the whole system down. More consumer protection is promised, too, particularly on the credit card front.
Canada’s government unveiled new guidelines for credit cards recently. And Nick Clegg, the leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats and star of a recent debate, is proposing a tax on banks to reduce the UK’s deficit. It ballooned, in part, after taxpayers bailed out its reckless banks, which were so chastened by their failure they doled out billions of pounds in new bonuses. Read more »
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that banking in Australia and New Zealand needs fixing. Until now, the banks have basically done what they like, leading to major imbalances in the economy and ballooning levels of personal debt.
While leading economists and financial commentators differ over how banks could be better regulated they mostly agree that banks should be better regulated.
