"Clergy blame banks for crisis" - (UK) Daily Mail

[Joe Chi Minh]

(Of course it is stating the obvious, in proximate terms, at least, but it is good to see the moral implications so clearly enunciated. Alas, our politicians bear yet greater responsibility for it, and the trust was lost long before by the poorer people, "who don't count" in the received wisdom of the Great and the Good and who have been effectively "stateless" in their own country, like the Palestinians. For their silence about that, Churchmen must themselves bear some responsibility. While the country was touted as being richer than ever, vast swathes of the population were/are poorer now than at any time since the thirties. Technically, the forties were probably so, but only technically).

Here is the item:

"Bankers were condemned by leading churchmen yesterday for pursuing "ruthless" gain as the credit crunch bites.
The Archbisop of York Dr John Sentamu acknowledged the suffering being experienced by struggling households in the UK.
He also warned banks against "exploitative lending" which would "enrich themselves at their poor neighbours' expense".

His sermon at York Minster followed a homily in London by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster and leader of Catholics in England and Wales, who blamed the credit crunh for a "breakdown" in the trust felt by society.

Dr Sentamu said: "Charity repudiates the idea of personal gain as a result of lending money to make ruthless gain bringing about disappropriation and enslavement".

DISAPPROPRIATION AND ENSLAVEMENT, Thank you crooked neo-liberal idiots.