As governments worldwide compete with each other to borrow ever greater amounts of our cash, we should all be aware that the very people borrowing the money are the ones who will in a short time be putting up our taxes. What goes up must come down and as the billions of whatever currency you fancy (except the Zimbabwe Dollar, in which case we could say zillions or multi-killions or something equally perverse) are borrowed and printed – we should all be careful and see them as they really are – the new loan sharks.

If you can’t afford something – don’t borrow money – end of story. No matter how low interest rates go – they will only serve to lengthen the period of your agony and fears over your financial future. The Government loan sharks act as if they are your saviour (just like the ones that prey on those who are desparate) – don’t worry guys – no need to do something as horrible as sacrifice that holiday or not buy that new gizmo or satellite subscription – just watch us on one of these many TVs you poor people have out there and we will organise things so you can borrow more, or delay your payments – instead of buy now  pay later we can offer you a discount now and pay double later and even later. Let’s live for now and let others worry about next year and the year after.

Governments have become the new loan sharks. Desparate not to upset any of us poor little mortals with such challenges as having to pay our own way in the world – the loan shark political elite who cannot solve Aids, Cancer and Alzheimer’s, well – that would mean doing difficult things like being determined to solve these problems with effort and hard work – think they are clever and can solve our Credit Disease by simply ignoring what has happened in the past and giving us more of what they think we need and what got is into this problem in the first place – easy money.

Whatever happened to these nice guys on TV that showed us how to get out of debt and budget our expenses and even encouraged us to save for our future?  Oh, they now work for the Government – that makes sense.

No need to worry about those millions of young people about to leave school and university who will inherit this mess, just sign here and we will look after you. We will buy the banks and mortgage companies so that they cannot do these nasty things like take away the property that you should not be in because those nasty Wall Street execs gave you a 125% “housing loan”. It really doesn’t matter anymore – because these new loan sharks have long put aside those silly values like – thrift, saving, living within your means and family budget control. We had the good times – now let’s have the bad times – only trust us – they won’t be that bad. In fact let’s try and avoid them – we could buy the car makers so you won’t lose your job as an overpaid assembly line car washer, we could also buy the oil companies so we can stop all that noisy drilling out there. Let’s not stop there – we will buy the Medical Companies so you can get free stress relief from all this worry and we’ll buy the Hotels up so we can give you some welcome relaxation time when you come out of rehab after we bought the Breweries. We will do whatever it takes to get you to vote for us.

So we surrendered manufacturing and don’t make things anymore – so what – you have all those Public Sector saviours like “Director of Specialist & Direct Delivery Services AND Director of Universal and Prevention Services” both Local Government positions are advertised today with salaries of 98,000 pounds pa and of course the Local Government Management have retained the services of an expensive Recruitment Consultant to help, because they themselves would not know a do do from a bo bo at the interview. I bet there are wonderful pension benefits with these “jobs” as well.  Could they perhaps save some money here – don’t be silly, these jobs are vital to somebody – but not us.  Central Government have given us a billion pounds of tomorrow’s savings and by jings we are going to spend it all before they change their minds!

So there we are – if you have over-borrowed and are over-paid,  you are one of us and we will look after you.  If you can do a job that does not create wealth – then your on our side. Let us climb that mountain together and put those who cannot manage properly at the front of our expedition – you see when you don’t know where your going – any road will take you there.  Let tomorrow take care of itself as we will be too busy looking for somewhere to hide.

How about Zimbabwe – I hear there are plenty of sharks there?

Being over 60 has it’s advantages – I remember when taking my pocket money to the Savings Bank and seeing the handwritten note in my savings book stating “paid in 10 shillings” made me feel good and pleased that I had managed to put hard to come by cash away for a rainy day.

Oh how times have changed – the form of consumerism invented in the 1990’s – and led by Wild Bill Clinton and his side kick Bla Bla Blair – has led us to today, when we are all wondering what happened. Huge Investment Banks closing down, Mortgage giants being nationalised and the Equity Markets frozen to the ground. Maybe things will get worst, maybe the need to.

Prudence and thrift were great bedfellows – before BS Brown came along and stole their integrity. As a child in the 1950’s I learnt how to save and realize the true value of money, how not to borrow more than I could afford to pay back – on time. We spent our money in small dozes – a shilling here a pound there. They called it thrift – it was really common sense.

I watched as people saved hard to have enough to pay a deposit on their first home. I saw how hard it was to get a housing loan or personal loan from the local Bank Manager. We all knew that a visit to the Bank was an important and usually scary event. Unlike today’s all-welcoming, all-embracing, open arms, employee-driven marketing drivel that comes from today’s market-driven, fly-by-night Banking fraternity. 

Anyone exposed to the Halifax’s (and with it the Bank of Scotland) advertising rubbish of the past decade would think that all you have to do is walk in take a pile of money and not think about when or how much you have to pay back. Isn’t it amazing how the population of supposedly educated people can be taken in by this stuff. Now we really know that “A” levels today are meaningless. That the majority of students leaving schools and Universities are under-developed in their ability to control their commercial awareness. It’s not that us 1950’s new oldies had more money spent on us, nor did we have Education, Education, Education as a mantra. No – we had confidence in Banks – in return – Banks made it very hard for us to borrow money. The combination of prudence and thrift made Banks safe, it is the only sure way to make Banks safe again.

There will be much pain as the markets correct the excesses of the past years – so marketing and advertising agencies beware – prudence and thrift are back – you better believe it. Employee-driven, client state advertising are failed campaigns – what will work going forward is the message that it is going to be harder to obtain what you want and as a result will be appreciated more when you work hard enough to earn it. So get on with the new Marketing campaigns and stop putting up those dangerous and dumb life is for free adverts.