Headlines and photos like this don’t help:
From
Savers vault from the banks to a safe place at home
So The London Times reports that household safe manufacturers say sales are up 25% as nervous investors decide their savings are more secure at home than in a bank.
Which came first? The stories or the sales?
We just finished discussing at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) the impact of the financial crisis on resiliency. Some councils in the UK are reporting they had millions of pounds in Iceland banks. Some of this money was their contingency funds. Yet, when asked by the BBC whether or not they are sufficiently funded to pay for any crisis (say, another flood or bombing on the Tube), the talking heads can’t – or won’t – give a straight answer.
No wonder sales of safes are up.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown says that this financial crisis “started in the United States.”
Wait, what about Northern Rock?
This British bank/mortgage company/savings and loan was in the business of subprime lending, too.
At Northern Rock you could “self certify.” That is, you could just tell them you made £50,000 whether you did or not. And, you could borrow 125% of the value of the home. Sound eerily familiar to you? It should. It’s subprime lending.
Why say it started in the United States? Why not just say all of these Western governments allowed this type of lending to spin out of control and step up as leaders and clean it up?
Once again we are not being truthful to the public.
