I think we all have a sense that our governments are allowing the real crooks of this "economic crisis", so called, to get off scot free and able to enjoy their luxury yachts and yucky twats ??

What do you think about the worldwide movement to "Occupy Wall Street" ?

I'm all for peaceful protests, especially with something as fundamental as this. There are thousands of people being laid off through not fault of their own, while the perpetrators are walking into new jobs very quickly or keeping their existing one.
There was a documentary shown up here of the fall of RBS, and how no one thought to question Fred the Shred while the bank was making money!! Although there problem was down to them buying ABN Amro without due diligence. He walked away with a huge pension and straight into a high paid job at a top architects - shocking

seems I'm back on the rant again - sorry xxx

I despise the real thieves of wealth!!!!

Depends where you want to draw the line...is it just bankers who are to blame for everything?

Or should politicians - who in the USA +UK weakened the checks and balances in the respective banking systems, which enabled the casino mentality and the selling of toxic debt - take some of the blame too?

How about us as consumers? Do we really need the latest phone, a 60 inch screen TV, or a new dress?

What about those wonderful people... the Chinese.... who censor their own citizens, steal technology from the west and sell us cheap goods we don't really need...whilst siphoning off jobs from our economies. Its called mercantilism and its designed to bankrupt western economies.

It is so so easy to blame everyone else without taking any responsibility for our own actions.

Having lived and worked most of my working life outside the UK I find the lack of responsibility and the blame culture here appalling. One example is that the UK has 80% of EU consumer debt.....whose fault is that?

Personally I don't see this as a black and white scenario....its like life...full of greys. Maybe instead of whining and blaming we should try to do things which enable us as individuals?

Pauline xxx

This post was edited by Pauline Smith at November 19, 2011 10:49 AM GMT

good point Pauline, it's not just the bankers who caused the problem, but they may have accelerated it.
from someone who worked for one of the bailed out UK banks.....I have to say that one of the main issues was around the bonus culture on offer. I worked in IT and got bonus for systems availability, however branch and call centre staff (who are on low wages it has to be remembered) were bonused on sales....quantity not quality! And if you could add £4K onto your £12K salary what would you do??
Unfortuantely these are the people who are now out of work, whereas the policy and decision makers are either in other high paid jobs or collected massive payouts as they left!!

After the collapse of HBOS it was discovered that they were borrowing money at a HIGHER rate than they were lending......not a very good business model is it??

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones as I didn't have much credit card debt as I preferred to save up for things I wanted....have to thank my parents for that as they made me save up pocket money etc.

In the end there are lots of reasons for the recession, but it is galling to see the policy makers still collecting £1M salaries and huge bonuses, while the people they put out of work are struggling to pay for food and fuel

Suzy xxx

Yes, and it all very easy to blame a nationality or a race for your own problems.

nicky xxx

there are still traders making a lot of money out of Eurozone "debt" which is their sodding creation in the first place, and these idiots will not impose a transaction tax - no worse than having a betting tax- its the same thing

Good analysis of the overall picture though Pauline

The World is becoming a freaking Casino.
The odds are stacked against the mug punter and in favour of the owners of, not the means of production, but the means of seduction !

Machines do our work now and we are the cash cows who moo and moan at every article in the tabloids that make us want more.

More what ? Beauty, new cars, a bigger house, diamonds, gold ???? Sapphires make my heart melt, but enough of that ..... Maybe it's the word ??? Hey ! It's my birthday ! Nicky XXX