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Personal debt in the UK is now so high the country is heading for an economic crisis, acoring to Ann Pettifor of the New Economics Foundation.

Have you taken on too much debt? Would you be able to cope if interest rates kept going up?

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One day it will go wrong, and the only people who will benefit then are the banks Robert Wilkinson

Everyone knows their own limits, but how many people actually live within their limits? When we own the latest gadget, a bigger house, or a flashy car, are we content? No, we want more. The simple word for that is greed.

And the banks feed on greed. Just a few years ago, debt was considered wrong, but now Britain is a greedy society that wants more for less.

One day it will go wrong, and the only people who will benefit then are the banks.
Robert Wilkinson

How reassuring that Anne Pettifor thinks we are all helpless buffoons in the financial world. When are these people going to advocate better education for people rather than more and more constraints on what financial institutions can or cannot do?

Do they not realise that regulation costs money, and in the end the money comes from the consumer. I am very disappointed you continue to give this sort of idiocy free publicity.
Graeme Herd

What about personal responsibility? Credit is like any double edged tool, it can be wielded to the users advantage or disadvantage. No one is holding a gun to your head when you fill in the credit card application form.
Ivan Brooke

It cannot be in any bank's interest to lend unwisely Michael Wilkin

Your contributor was both right and wrong when she identified that the boom in house prices is unhealthy.

She was incorrect in advocating such swinging moves as to reduce the maximum loan to value to 80%.

Economies get into trouble because of bubbles bursting. The housing market is a bubble, but any moves should have as their aim a slow release of the pressure rather than a burst.

The Lawson antics of raising interest rates by 2% at a time after causing the bubble when he removed double tax relief meant the pin was applied, and it took many years to achieve a stable economy.
Peter Frost

It cannot be in any bank's interest to lend unwisely, but we do not want to go back to the days of the 60s and 70s. Banks should be better at explaining their own systems.
Michael Wilkin

The banks lending massive sums of money to consumers are giving in to temptation.

They promise 'you can have it all now' with siren's voices, drawing their victims onto the rocks.

But once the consumer gets out of his depth, he finds a complete change to the former attitude.
Valerie Darby

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