Jet-hosed in cheap money

The mainstream media in the West is spewing forth an enormous amount of "debt is bad" wisdom now that home prices are plunging and both credit markets and stock markets are reeling all around the world.

The situation sounds only slightly less grim when the interview subjects have a British accent, as seen in this documentary on foreclosures by Jeff Randall of the Daily Telegraph.

Also, in a related report in today's paper:

Our interviewees are a cross-section of modern Britain, where millions of people have been lulled into a false sense of prosperity by the soporific sound of easy money, credit on tap.

Gordon Brown keeps telling us that, under his stewardship, this country has enjoyed its longest-ever period of economic growth. Were a business to make a similar boast, you might expect it to have cash in the bank.
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How did we get here and who is to blame? There is no doubt that when interest rates fell to very low levels in 2003-2004, the banks spotted an opportunity to jet-hose their customers in cheap money.

In pumping out credit to maximise profits, they knew that a growing minority of unfortunates would be ruined. But, hey ho, that's business.

That's a new one - "jet-hose their customers in cheap money". Me-likey.

There are a number of human interest stories in the documentary that sound just like human interest stories you are likely to hear in the U.S., that is, except for the accent.

Somehow, in this case, the lilting tone doesn't make the British sound any more regal than, say, a dazed southerner here in the U.S. trying to figure out how they are going to dig themselves out of the rather large debt-hole that they have just discovered they are in.