Jeremy
With all due respect, you don't really know what you are talking about ... In the US.
I don't argue about the States - I don't have any money (that I know about) sitting there.
But I do know about Northern Rock and I do know about Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland and LLoyds. It was indeed the folks with cash on deposit that were certain to lose it had these structures been allowed to fail.
Unfortunately, as my wife was losing her battle with cancer at the end of '08 we were, at the same time, trying to get money out of one bank and into another perceived as more secure. I remember walking through the local town square with our kids, just a day or so after the funeral, when the cellphone rang and a bank confirmed that they had opened a fresh account for us. It was touch and go that the credit card could pay for the funeral because the old account that fed it had been closed and I had to await the opening of the new in order to get even the money I needed to refurbish the
local Spanish one and feed us all.
So don't tell me it is only the stock players and bank
shareholders that were and still are at risk; without the deposits there would be nothing for anyone. And as I do know something about bank shareholding, don't kid anyone that they were, and remained, always great buys. It also sits badly for people currently to blanket call the brokers assholes; nobody thought of calling them that when times were good and interest poured in! Truth is, we like the gambling game when we win, but blame somebody else when we lose. At least the lottery has no hypocrisy to it... on the other hand, so far, it only buys me the odd (very) cup of coffee.
Yes, I agree that policing of these services is required - but it always was a need, the rules were there, but who enforced them?
Rob C
P.S. Yes, I do know about the governmental 'guarantees' for deposits; for many people the sums 'guaranteed' still signal wipeout.