Now.. Gordon's stressing these are not 'crisis meetings' he's having with the Chief Financial Officers of several banks.. of course Alistair's there as well.. presumably to rubber-stamp whatever agreement is announced later this evening..
It seems the meetings held this past weekend were basically pointless.. with those participating making unilateral financial guarantees as soon as their respective planes landed.. Fear seems to be the prime mover in the EU these days..
And we can all take hope from the British Chamber of Commerce's announcement that we're already in recession.. and we can expect unemployment in these British Isles to increase by.. get this.. 33% over the next couple of years..
Now I'm sure there are those who would blame television..
But in truth.. we have put ourselves in this position..
When there are those daft enough to accept a mortgage worth five times their annual gross salary.. When we blithely spend money we don't have, provided by banks who's only purpose is to make money, and expect to float along spending our futures for immediate gratification..
What did we expect..?
We complain about our relative governments incessantly.. yet we vote them into power..
We complain when it's difficult to get onto the 'housing ladder'.. when market demand forced prices through the roof.. Yet we took on the debt..
We thoroughly commit ourselves to a 'throw-away' culture..
And we expect there to be no cost?
Oddly enough, those who will weather this crisis with the least loss, are those with little or nothing to lose. Those on government pensions have their income tied to the rate of inflation.. And while, at the moment, there are calls for the Fed to set the stage and lower interest rates next month, there will come a time in the not too distant future when inflation will set in with a vengeance..
The interest rates in inter-bank loans is already above 15%.. How long do we expect to be immune..?
There's a Government announcement 'poised' for release..
More when we've heard what the substance is..