I don't fully agree that "the banks" are the main culprits. Eventually "the system" is too blame and the systems that is our governments and ourselves.
Many people fail to understand the very definition of money. When I point people to the crashing stock exchanges, people running for their money on the banks, etc... people keep asking me the question "and where is all that money then going to?".
Well... that money didn't existed in the first place. That is the core of the problem of this crisis: PEAK CREDIT. I've written a lot on this phenomenon and people fail to understand it.
It is so simple: the "wealth" that you think you own by adding up (1) your house or apartment (2) your pension fund (3) your stocks and on which you base your "lifestyle", spending pattern and buying behaviour is not real in a fact that there is no money to back it up. For the simple reason that the balance sheet of the world is not matching: there are endlessly more debts than assets, even at the previously inflated values.
The below video illustrates the phenomenon perfectly.
The question that the world is now facing: how do you move your 'presumed wealth' around so that you can preserve most of it? And trust me, look beyond borders when you ask yourselve that questions.
Which currencies do you trust now that the US dollar's supremacy as the world's reserve currency is approaching? Do you want cash under your matress or do you prefer gold? Real estate is a safe gard asset? In which country is it the safest? etc... etc...
What central bankers need to do is abolish fractional reserve lending and ideally return to currencies backed by hard assets. This would be a disastor for the US, they prefer short term actions and try to force liquidity into the system to spur more lending. Such actions can no longer work because the problem is too much lending already. We have overcapacity of everything in Belgium: housing, commercial real estate, restaurants, debts,...
Peak credit: the biggest global credit boom in history is now over !
