You make the points well, the banks were reckless in lending; the public reckless in over stretching their finances. Guilt all round it seems. The moral is if you can't afford it, don't buy it. And if you lend it, do due dilligence properly.
As to energy security, I agree whole heartedly.

kenneth Hart, Kidderminster,

So, it's the soldiers' fault if wars take place: why should they shoot each other?

We may have to accept crisis as the solution itself, instead of planning. What's wrong with moralising? Everybody I know does! Even I...

Nestor, Barcelona, Spain

I don't care one jot about this country anymore. I've made a lot of money in the City and I'm off to live in Barbados. I took a lot of risks and earned a lot of money. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. So now I don't give a toss what happens to the UK. See ya.

Declan, Chelmsford,

Regarding loan sharks, I work for Provident and I spend a large proportion of my day saying to people, in a polite but firm way, that their ideas of how much they can borrow and how much they can afford to pay are totally unrelated. People want - it is the politics of expectation. No-one has to buy

Michael Bell, Rotherham,

Makes a change to read some plain speaking rather than the usual mealy mouthed tosh, recycled Labour briefings etc. Keep it up.

WB, London, England

I'm not an economist. Could somebody explain to me why pension fund/unit trust pushers imply that we'll get an average return of 7% per year, whilst our economy goes up by around 1.5% per year, much of that growth being generated by government spend and non-public companies.

James Dey, London,

as in early 90's the people I feels sorry for are the striving young men now in late 20's who have worked hard and been prudently building deposits to get on house ladder, without experience to know they are going to trapping our nations energy and mobility dragging the economy down for 5yrs+

calvin, oxford,

You criticise people for taking free money when it was offered? Maybe they felt good about the fact that the bank was interested enough in them to lend to them. You can't blame them for taking it - what should they have said "I really don't think you should be lending to me I'm a bad risk"???

NigelB, Liverpool,

Never borrow short to lend long.
A maxim ignored in the manic rush to feed "must have" demand. When "short" funds are withdrawn or dryup you get "toxic debt".
Sanity and sensible margins must be restored.

David Cotterell, Cheltenham, U K

Polititians have to make long term decisions NOT short term just to stay in power. I fear for all the young people "persuaded" to purchase property (read any national newspaper at the time) .Clearly the prices were unsustainable but all we heard was the use of property to "prop" up personal pensions

Alan, Blackburn, England

At last. Bankers are not evil some of them were just stupid. Lending to people that should never have had credit or at least not at those levels. No one forced these people to take the money.

JLP, Cambridge,

Great article. Basic law of economics: if demand exists, supply is assumed. So blame those who demand, not those who supply. Here - its the 'poor' people who demanded a false sense of weath and imagined trappings of middle class life (me included). Bankers just supply.

OK, Munich,

Were house prices really settled by free market laws?
How come they were so abundant and expensive at the same time? Cause of speculation, what else? Speculators should simply get ruined and imprudent buyers indebted for life. That's the simple nature of self-regulation.
Anything else is Socialism.

Ian, London, UK

if you cant afford to pay it back dont borrow, thats ok. but people could not have expected such sharp inflation suddenly. the bankers have been irresponsible and so have the public to a degree, but its also the media who portrayed this all consuming lifestyle to us who must take some blame.

mark, UK, UK

Sad that you can't understand that bankers SHOULD HAVE a social role including helping others understand when they shouldn't be borrowing any further - even if that hurts your short-term profits. For you it's always someone else's job to worry about society while you are busy taking care of yourself

James, London,

"rampant capitalism did the job, transferring hundreds of billions of pounds into the pockets of the less-well-off. Much of it will never be paid back,"

What on EARTH does this statement mean ?

Ian McColm, sittingbourne, UK

If we all wanted less materially, particularly the high earners life would be better for most.
I dont understand this culture of the massive city bonuses, how many houses cars or holidays do you need?
People think that they prove their worth with material goods, they are just showing their greed.

j whiteside, Lytham,Lancashire, England

With house prices having trebled in the past decade the real transfer of wealth has been from the working class, having to borrow ever larger sums of money to afford a roof over their heads, to the landowning and landlord classes. The NuLab experiment has just been a rebranding of Toryism.

Paul, Coventry,

Good article. But what are banks, simply businesses that turn over money. That's all banks do, existing by making money from lending money. It takes no great skill and any fool can run a bank badly...as we have seen. And there were plenty of fools willing to borrow badly too. Que sera sera !

Nigel, Lincoln,

My working life began in 1950s .
For the overwhelming bulk of that time, due to inflation not only was it impossible to "save up" for something it was plain silly.
Socialists want a return to feudalism with themselves as "The Baron smiling in the Hall" and us as pesants grateful for their
bounty

Peter Bolt, Redditch, UK

Like the old adage from Hamlet 'A lender nor a borrower be'. But we are where we are. Given the massive amounts of cash being talked about and the already evident debt black holes - private and government - a policy of monetizing the costs of the crisis seems most likely. Savers 0 Borrowers 1. Endof

Frank, London, UK

"loan sharks" a sort of myth ? No. I live in council housing we are regularly targeted by one of the oldest credit providers to such as I - Provident . Under Blair/Browns New Labour they have no shame in proudly boasting on their mailshots 183.2% APR. They assume the poor don't understand.

John, Motherwell, UK

It's not 'shove-a-penny' it's 'shove ha'penny'. This oversight ruined an otherwise excellent article!

Tern, Manchester, UK

"the great capital transfer to the poor that took place over the past 15 years"?! Is this the same 15 years through which the rest of us have been living, during which time the underclass of people living below the poverty line has exploded whilst the rich get richer?

Simon, Haslemere, Surrey

The drug addict and the pusher. Who do you really want to get. You also seem to have a flight of ideas trying to blame this one on unions. They have been in decline for 35 years. Social engineering or simply making sure that the families of those that died received more than just a medal.

Stephen O'Mara, Tamworth, Australia

Is this article serious? The "poor" blue collar working men and women are the ones being taken to court for money owed, selling their houses and filing for bankruptcey i.e. living with the consequences of their actions. Whereas the banks are after massive bailouts from the government!

Andy, Stockport, UK

Speaking of "begging bowls" what about the $700 billion the banks are currently begging for? And whilst the bankers futures will be secured by a tax payers funded rescue plan the working man will simply lose his house - there is simply no moral equivalent.

BrendanT, London,

A valid point slightly undermined by trying to push the blame onto the "working man".

They took loans, but there is a difference between benefiting from and taking the blame for initiating.

The blame lies with the lack of regulation, but the onus for repair with us all, because we all benefited.

Joe, London,

Stop giving captialism a bad name. Irresponsible lending by financial institutions is nothing to do with capitalism. The financial institutions are there to oil the wheels of capitalism and what we have seen is Gordon Brown allow this irresponsibility through lack of regulation and controls.

David Ryall, Manchester, England

I'm reminded of a very old saying. One that fits this case wonderfully. One I've lived happily by.
'Neither a borrower nor a lender be'
Think about it.

Chris, St Leonards-on-sea, UK

As banks are not responsible in their lending, and individuals are not clever enough to work out what they can borrow, there must be nanny state regulations:
e.g. LTV not less than 25%
borrowing on housing up to 3 x salary
limits on unsecured loans and financing arrangements etc

eve, London, UK

Yes the Poor and I include myself in this definition should not be spending more than they can afford, they are creating the impression that they have money which they don't. How can you expect tax cuts if you always have money for a Plasma TV, a weekend break a new Car. Can't afford it now, save up

Andrew, London,

If your an adult and you borrow money, which you cant pay back, you have no one to blame but yourself. Grow up, take personal responsibility for your actions.

Gavin, London, UK

I agree it's too easy to blame everything on the bankers but I always objected to the telling, insider term 'liar loans' used to describe self-certifying mortgages. If they thought self-certs were likely to be abused. why make them so easy to obtain? There's a nasty smell about that.

anne, bournemouth,

NINJA mortgages.

No Income No Job No Assets.

The banks are to blame, we can talk about saving money til the cows come home but the greed of the bankers by far surpasses the greed of joe blow in the street.

Anthony, London,

Great article!
Don't blame the poor down trodden bankers it's all the fault of those low paid workers. How dare they take holidays abroad.
Before you know it they will be expecting them every year and then where will the economy be.

Terry, Newcastle, UK

The spike in the oil price on Monday was caused for technical reasons - it was the close out for October contracts and a handful of market participants had to adjust there holdings or actually deliver physical oil. Oil prices will probably come down as recession sets in the USA and elsewhere.

Rob, London,

Why are we locking up drug dealers if it is the drug addicts who should be taking moral responsibility? The financial system spent billions on pushing cheap loans, cheap mortgages and cheap creidt to consumers. Why? To enrich the poor man? Don't make me laugh.

Mark, London, UK

Some (most?) bankers knowingly made loans that would never be paid back just to boost their personal commission. This is greedy irresponsibility (fraud?) not just 'doing their job'. Would we forgive a dentist who lied to a patient and pulled out healthy teeth just to increase his earnings?

Eric Skelton, Cardiff, Wales

What did the money lent to 'the poor' do? It pushed up house prices so that all paid more for housing than they might otherwise have done. Sure they could withdraw equity and buy trinkets but that has to be repaid, otherwise they lose their homes and go bankrupt. Short term benefit, long term pain.

Steve, London, England

The City and Wall Street are driving the economy. The tail is wagging the dog. Now the dog is in intensive care unit. The remedy: shear the dog somemore!!!And shear it fast!!!

Kafka, HK,

No, sorry, that's not quite right.
The working man may have borrowed this money (and is largely paying it back), but it is the bankers who bundled and sold these mortgages as though they were something other (and more profitable) than they were.

James , London, UK

Please stop blaming bankers for society's inability to manage their own finances. Banks go down when people dont pay their bills!!!!! I am sure everyone who owns a home has benefited from low rates and house price appreciation. Lets not all be greedy after the music stops.

Fixed, London,

Fantastic article. Right on the Button. The response from present party of government has been laughable, and only reinforces the argument that there is now no place for a party almost totally bankrolled by the unions in modern politics.

Bart, London,

debt was never a transfer of wealth to the working man. this idea that the city drives our economy is so arrogant - its as if there are no other ways to live and run an economy especially one that is more fairer and has some moral values to it. we may have flat tv screens, but a happy nation?

Dr Smith , London, UK

Its not them or us, it is all of us. This modern disease of blaming others for every tiny bit of risk in our lives is going to destroy our freedom, starting with our spending. If you cant resist debt then clearly you cant be trusted with your own finances. Do you really want that world? Slavery?

PSF, London, Uk

"There was an unwritten rule among bankers that you didn't lend to poor people."

Brilliant.Just brilliant stuff.

Social Darwinism anyone?

Who do you mean by "poor people", exactly?

Christopher Faherty, Spiddal, Galway,Ireland

It was about time someone came in defense of the poor banker...sometimes this newspaper makes very funny reading...Only those who have lost their jobs, those who can´t pay their debts and are being repossessed may not find it so entertaining...I read the FBI is investigating these top execs.

Maria, Madrid, Spain

Excellent comment! The UK can't afford 2 more years of social experiment. A Govt of National Unity is required to prescribe the 'bad medicine' to cure the patient:

Cut public spending
Ease tax on wealth creation
Credit control on consumers
Investment incentives for wealth creation
Etc. etc.

Steve Marchant, Newton Abbot, UK

I work in City and couldn't find a less compassionate bunch of over-paid,witless and arrogant people anywhere in the country,Parliament included. Short-term goal of bonuses now has resulted in this debacle.

The credit-crunch is more directly linked to defaulting US mortgages than loans anyway

Ben Valdo, London, UK

Like it or not the system in the past did work on the assumption that those with lower financial I.Q were protected from themselves and damage to the rest of the community by the more knowledgeable bank manager . Now it's "Brighter House" "Crazy George" mentality, i.e. mugs are there to be used.

John, Motherwell, uk

......and I wonder what Carl Drivelhead's take is on Global warming - probably a load of oh so serious whinging scientists and we should all celebrate that fact that we might be able to lay on the beach for longer........let them eat cake

Mike, London,

I'm tired of seeing people on TV whining at why the government won't help them pay their bills. Since when was that the government's job? Where are your savings? Pay your own damn bills - fix your own mess. I only earn £15k a year with no debts; no credit crunch down here.

anya, UK,

Labour has tinkered with everything in this country , and enjoyed the City prosperity . Labour has spent like no tomorrow which the generations to come will have to pay for. To blame bankers is harsh, to say the least and who were paid in stock which is now worthless. We are a bankrupt nation .

P.Hodges, Nottingham, UK

Oh please, Louise. So your cleaner is doing better than you are and her kids are lazy? And what do you do with your valuable time? Subprime lenders, BTW, did not allow low income borrowers to borrow sensibly. They had to take out huge loans or get nothing at all. Gangsta style, Mr Mortished.

Lucy Norman, London, UK

A reasonable point. "The poor" are not blameless and nether are "the bankers." Everyone has made a hash of it and whinging and blamising acheives nothing. The unions definitely need to stop being so greedy.

michael, London,

Excellent articles. The author is not "blaming" the poor. People need to get over the black/white view that one party is at fault or the other. Everyone played a role in this mess, from greedy bankers, to lax regulators to greedy, short-sighted borrowers, working class or otherwise.

S.C. Huldig, London,

The only thing worse than the greed of many bankers is their self-justifying logic that seeks to paint their actions as realist charity for th poor if only these ignorant common men were clever enough to see it.

DW, Beijing, China

The real problem of the financial crisis is that the majority of the Americans borrowed money from the banks while the banks did not have the sources. In other words: Borrowing not existing money financed with not existing money taken from an empty piggy-bank.

cornelio, Manila, Philippines

I have a cleaner for 2 hours a week. She arrives in her snazzy car, goes on countless holidays even though she says she has no money, her children are lazily wasting their tax paid education to end up doing 'whatever'. Just buys clothes,more 'stuff' and endlessly goes out. What mentality is this?

louise, london,

Who is this "working man" of whom you speak in such an expert and condescending manner? This grinding of the economic gears is going to affect everybody, including your colleagues in journalism and especially those who have been unlucky enough to enter the housing market
in the past five years.

marc, wanaka, new zealand

So where did all the money go ? Every time I hear about the central banks injecting more money I wonder what has happened to all the money already in circulation.

Blaming the poor is novel, it isn't like a huge amount of the money went in bankers' bonuses and inflated salaries now is it ?

john, tokyo,

Mr. Mortished you need to study finance in a bit more depth. Fractional banking (employed by most 'sophisticated' financial institutions) means that for every pound "borrowed" by the common man a further 9 pounds is totted up by the lending institution as 'equity' on their balance sheet. Get it?

NDG, Tokyo, Japan

Debt is not wealth distribution to the 'poor'.

Was it the 'poor' who leveraged the money they borrowed then packaged it into triple A rated bonds?

Will it be the poor and the more careful savers who bail out the greedy bankers - yes.

Condescending self interested drivel.

chris, stockport,

We need to plan for long term energy security, but not necessarily ownership. And, we must proactively re-establish some kind of manufacturing - we are too service oriented. Otherwise the UK will find itself in wholesale debt to other countries courtesy of their sovereign wealth funds.

Mary, Birmingham, West Mildlands

I was getting letter after letter asking me to take out loans. I don't borrow unless necessary and happen to be good with numbers; a significant propotion of people who have borrowed are partialy dyscalulic. These should be idenitified and their loans scrubbed; or they'll be mighty angry soon!

kevin, Lincoln, UK

yes it was the working man who borrowed .but it was the banks who lent the money in the first place. They had a responcibility to properly oversee their lending practices they did nt because they are greedy!
Dont blame unions or the working man for the folly of financial instiutions

philip hammond, adelaide,

Well written. The 250 yr cycle of democracy is proving true.

Frank, Olalla, USA

Totally agree. I have seen so many people who go to holiday a few times a year and now struggling to pay their mortgage. My family rarely do holiday travel but have no mortgage and we are not so affected with the current economy crisis.

Claire - expat, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Of course, Carl. Don't give money to the working people because they'll just splash it. Give it to the Mr. Know-All running our companies, because only them know how to spend it productively.

Marcus, Washington, DC, USA

Sane lending is about managing risk.

The age old philosophy of a balanced portfolio now falls on deaf ears.

Why "Break the Bank" - or should I say the world's banks - when it will take a decade or more to recover.

1933 was followed shortly afterwards by a world war.

Richard, Bucharest,

the last few weeks have shown without question that the finance sector is too important to be left in the hands of the bankers to self regulate. the bonus system is a key driver of aggressive and high risk behaviour and should be taken out of the hands of self interested bankers.

stephen, china, china

Great piece of writing.
Truth is told.
To put it simply would be great.

ian, singapore, singapore

Whether it be unionism, capitalism or any othe ism, they are all greedy in one way or another. Which ever ism is followed, the believers all jump on the "greedy wagon" eventually. Money controls all and isms are soon swept aside in the rush to get some.

Jim Wills, Brisbane, Australia

If the money was transferred to the pockets of the poor, why would it need to be paid back? Unless it was lent by unscruplous money lenders in search of profit at any cost.

Lending is not giving is it?

paul, slough,

Oh finally, an article that calls it like it is. It is such a relief to read an opinion that calls for people to drop the fake moralising, and instead take responsibility for all the credit cards and mortgage dept that is the foundation of this problem.

charlie/expat, los angeles, US