the corner office

Greed and stupidity - a simplified view of how the world financial system got into the mess it's in now. Undeniably, the bankers, and now the short sellers, the speculators and other big institutions running scared are part of the problem.

But ultimately, it's also the greed and stupidity of ordinary people. The blame has to be shared by every person who took a mortgage or loan they couldn't reasonably afford to repay, every person who overspent on their credit card without thinking about the consequences. If people hadn't been willing to shell out such grossly inflated amounts of money just to 'get on the property ladder', would things be as bad as they are? No.

I don't expect that sentiment to get a lot of air time.

A lot of people are talking about the job losses in the city and saying 'good, serves the bankers right'. And as other people are saying, and very truthfully, there are plenty of office workers and cleaners and ordinary folk who will suffer and lose their jobs at these banks as well. I feel very sorry for them. Some of them.

I was reading one of the commuter papers this evening (I know...), and they had some write-ups about Lehman employees who face the chop. One of the people was a lady who has some kind of admin job at Lehman Brothers. Earns £24k a year, separated with 2 kids. Oh, and pays 75% of her salary on her mortgage. I don't know the lady's circumstances, but for crying out loud: surely if you're paying out 3 quarters of your salary on your home, you could get something smaller, get something more in line with your income, rent instead... anything to take control of your debts. I find it hard to be sympathetic. The irony... I couldn't help but think that this lady and people like her are part of the reason her employer's just gone under.