(V): And Europe is going broke. You can only give away so much money before you saturate the system. You know that. One look to Greece is all you need to see how badly a system can fail. You Brits aren't doing so well either. And the USA is heading that way fast.

Artful Dodger: thank god for Australia :)

Bernice:

Artful Dodger: Greece is a strange case, due to much of the country being owned by the Greek Church. As a general example it's pretty crap. Yes in the UK we have problems.. as do all modern economies.

The failure of economies is due to the banks... a capitalist system with no or little regulation at the time, as we were told that they were trustworthy.

The USA is already bust. If it were not for the Chinese and others buying your debt it would be more evident. Something that was started back in the 80's under Raygun and no Pres or US government since has had the balls to stand upto those who choose to manipulate the US economic system just so 1% of Americans can get loads of extra cash.

In real terms the other 99% of Americans have had their income drop allowing for inflation, etc... just so 1% can see their income rise.

(V): Banks are not the problem. Government is. Regulations are in effect, but not followed. In some cases, the government forced bank policy to act against sound financial sense. Many banks saw only dollar signs and went along. Some got greedy. Many didn't. Credit Unions are still strong. I have all my money in a local credit union. Investing in my community. Bank greed is a symptom of a deeper problem. So your only 1/2 right on that point.

Artful Dodger:
It is true that some policies have been counterproductive and some regulations made ineffective. That doesn't imply that there should be no regulations. Policies and regulations should make sense and regulations need to have "teeth" for enforcing them.
It's also true that credit unions have typically avoided the problems banks have had. The key there was how they were controlled and by whom.

Artful Dodger: Right.... That's why The UK has had to stop the bank system collapsing and millions of peoples savings lost of banks like the RBS. This would have had WORLD WIDE repercussions.

... the government didn't tell the bank to engage in a consortium to buy another bank. Nor did the government tell them to ignore warnings from their own people regarding the lack of full accounts, as it did not matter... The buying of the bank was already decided to go ahead regardless...

The billions of pounds that have gone on shoring up the financial system re RBS, Northern Rock and other banks... The loss that councils in the UK are reeling from due to banks in Europe that have collapsed taking investments with them..

.. it's all the governments fault. Banks and businesses do not in anyway have any influence on governments what so ever, or do they have the ability to run themselves.

..... Our governments do that... well in the UK at least.. 'own' many of them, or in principle the people do.

"Bank greed" ... ... That's the greed that cost the UK over £850,000,000,000

Artful Dodger:

> And Europe is going broke. You can only give away so much money before you saturate the system. ... And the USA is heading that way fast.

I think the difference is that in some countries the government gives away the money to bankers, troubled giant corporations and the military industrial complex. The question is, what causes more problems? Giving money away through social programs? Or giving money away to the rich and powerful? As of last week, bankers have received bailouts twice! The only reason why the financial markets recovered last week is because in essence central bankers gave banks a second round of bailouts. The third is the charm I suppose. Next time they will be begging communist China to bailout the capitalist system!

Übergeek 바둑이: I don't think we should bail out the banks. But the government created this mess and allowed the banks to take advantage stupid regulations. And clearly, there are some banks that deserve criminal prosecution.

Here's a story: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57336042/prosecuting-wall-street/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

another is here: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57336046-10391709/behind-the-financial-crisis-a-fraud-investigator-talks/?tag=contentBody;listingLeadStories

Some politicians need to see some jail time as well. But it will never happen.