Recession reminder: we live in each other’s shadow

SUDDENLY the talk is of shared responsibility from people who were happy to freeboot their way to wealth by any means to hand. And many of those means were underhand. The game is up and the bank is bust.

People are angry and afraid. They look for scapegoats. Someone must be seen to suffer — but not them. The rich, in their time-honoured fashion, will sit tight, suffer little or nothing, may make a few token gestures before leaving on the next rising tide.

Governments are powerless, caught in a trap sprung by greed and ignorance, in thrall to silver-haired men wearing two-toned shirts whose immaculate tailoring matched their impeccable manners. Who would dare to question people so suave? A man’s word was his bond, after all. Except it was someone else’s bond, pension fund, life savings. And it has all disappeared. Regulation failed because it did not ask the hard questions.