Vote!

Are your savings now safe?

37% are saying yes
63% are saying no

comments from readers

nawawimohamad
09 October 2008

yes

The future is still bright

swatantra nandanwar
09 October 2008

yes

Yes, for the time being, But I honestly don't know. Economics is an inexact science and it only takes someone to panic and the whole house of cards will come tumbling down.

writeon
09 October 2008

Of course they are, it's not just savings that are in danger, it's everything.

If, and it seems more and more likely, we enter Great Depression Two, all bets are off about the way we live and what the future holds.

We face a whole range of massive, global problems, which require collective global solutions and action; climate change, environmental degradation, population growth, the fossil fuel crisis... A depression, where it's every country for itself, will make dealing with these problems worse.

At the core, we have created the a huge, pulsating, vortex of debt like a black hole in space. This hole is far, far, bigger than the entire value of the world's real economy. The real economy can no longer hide and obscure this collosal dislocation. Now the greatly inflated vortex of debt has to somehow return to a managable size and shrink drastically. This process will be violent and incredibly destructive. Not only individual banks, but whole sectors of the real economy and even countries, are going to be sucked into the black hole. It is going to be very nasty indeed.

There are massive social and political consequences attached to this crisis of capitalism. For example the destruction of the American Empire, an empire destroyed from inside by debt and hubris. What will the consequences be for the US ruling class of such obvious and disasterous misrule?

Carl Jones
09 October 2008

Got a gun against my head pulled the trigger now he`s dead.....well, the trigger hasn`t been pulled yet.LOL

I was going to add more, but whats the point, hardly anyone who reads this site believes its a setup, that we have been robbed and even if things look OK for a few months, the US is struggling with huge debts, debts that have just doubled. Never mind, the Fed is printing greenbacks, so we can keep warm this winter.LOL

William
09 October 2008

yes

Well employment within & for EU be a DoubleWhammy.

Abang Tambe
10 October 2008

well, it sounds as if we've all lost our sense of being.
how can the government say they're given our monies to banks and again turn around and tell us that we would have to apply to the same banks to borrow our own money. what is the sense behind that?

Roland Baker
10 October 2008

What savings are those? My pension pot takes a mega-hammering while interest rates are cut so my annuity will be zilch. My building society deposits are as safe as my common sense. Robbers Bank plc are only offering me 7% because nobody in the money markets will lend it to them for less, but I haven't been stupid enough to fall for it - I am not a local authority who can just tax people to make up for my incompetence.

10 October 2008

yes

Yes, but I'm not 100% sure and I would be happier if we could have ditched Prime Minister Brown who is culpable in this matter. It's funny that the Scots. Nats. seem awfully quiet, the last time England had to save them from bankruptcy they had to join agree a Union with England. Perhaps the UK will remain united after all!

Frank Amies
10 October 2008

yes

Mind, we have to put up with a lumpy mattress.

suell
10 October 2008

yes

yes in the sense that they are probably no more or no less safe than the majority of savers and pension holders. No in the sense that all financial uncertainties have taken a tumble.

Sue Lloyd

marymartisius
11 October 2008

Our economic down turn has now set the stage for a one world banking system. We are almost to that point...when one stock market drops, they all drop like a house of cards. Did you hear Obama declare himself a "citizen of the world" in his speech in Germany? In time, the market may recover, but If Obama is elected, hold on to your hats!!!!!! And "beware of the enemy from within".

mat2clay@yahoo.co.uk
11 October 2008

This is the view from a normal, sane human being not mired in the wizardry of high finance and economics. The banks and financial institutions ultimately got all their money from us - where else would they get it from, we are the ones who earn it and the ones who gave it to them they then invented a huge range of things to do with it which were simpoly beyond the comprehension of the average person, but we were told that everything was all right and money was safe. Like plunbing or electricity, most of us do not know how it works but can use it, leaving the technicalities to the experts. But the bottom line is, now that everything has gone wrong - ie the 'experts have messed it up - what has happened to the money and why are we now being asked to give them even more just so that we can keep our homes and jobs? If an electrician works on my house and burns it down I do not expect to have to pay for him to repair it, I expect to sue him and for him to pay. When we had this money that we gave - well really lent - them, it was real and in our wage packets. What happened to it, who has it now and can we have it back please? If they can lose all these trillions of pounds then the government, using the same complicated financial devices could do the same with the rest of our money and then there will be none left to guarantee our savings. As Iceland shows, governments are no more stable and 'real' than banks. Paying a second 'expert' to rapair my house after the first has burnt it down because the first is now out of business is no good if the second is just as incompetent as him.

Cybertiger
11 October 2008

Bonus hunters, snake-oil tradesmen and idiot politicians: hang ‘em high and we’ll all be safe.

scientific earthling
12 October 2008

Inflation has been stealing the average person of his/her wealth for years.
Money is a measure of value. It is used to exchange goods, services and assets. It is also a store of value.
Guaranteeing your bank deposits does not assure you of its value, what good will the money do you if after a financial catastrophe it will only buy you a cup of coffee.
Crime and Punishment need to be re-evaluated. The bogus idea that punishment does not work, as put forth by the supporters of criminals needs to be tested.

dsf
13 October 2008

No savings are safe... i work in a bank and not everyone knows the insde stuff that is going on. They just want our money to help them recover there losses. After charging for overdraft a lot now there losing OUR money ! and yes i;m a banker.!

Graeme, Hastings
13 October 2008