to think most people benefit from banks?

[chandellina]

and to be so fed up with banker bashing.

Will Hutton on Dispatches (Channel 4) has revealed the shocking fact that banks have been making 75% of their lending in the form of mortgages, which his researcher goes on to say is a socially useless function for the economy.

How is it socially useless to allow people to borrow to buy their own homes, and doesn't it inherently make most people net beneficiaries of the financial system?

And where would this country and its inhabitants be without its housing wealth?

All this nonsense about banks holding the country to ransom completely sidesteps the enormous benefits of credit in modern society.

there's a credit union in my town. if I could be bothered,I could use it - it's about a 3 min walk from my house to the place where you can pay money in once a week I think or you can do it by direct debit. I'm also in one of the few remaining building societies. the death of building societies is going to come back and bite us on the bum some time soon - they were a genuine alternative til they all decided to go mad and behave like banks and start gambling money away. another one I was in folded a year after posting good profits - they'd invested in buy to let! duh. just not their proper role at all

anyhow, just like talking about public sector pay, this is all smoke and mirrors to distract from where the blame really lies - merchant banking and the intertwined nature of retail and merchant banking. separate them and let the merchant banks sink or swim on their own profit\loss making abilities without taking the rest of us with them

Credit unions are a very good thing.

Unfortunatley, they are facing big credit losses in many cases from bad debts as their borrowers are often on benefits, in debt elsewhere, or in low wage jobs that are very insecure.

The one I did voluntary work for (until last week) is under severe financial pressure.