Who caused the crisis - Savers or borrowers

Trade imbalances laid the foundations and bankers built their house of cards using the cards at the bottom again at the top and keeping a few up their sleeves. It is interesting to note that America was once to Europe what Japan is now to the US. A system was proposed by Keynes to keep a check on these imbalances.

Conspicuous thrift

Interesting but flippant article about keeping down appearances in bad times. I wonder if in our shallow, consumption-based economy there isn't a little longing for some balance or even hardship to give meaning to peoples lives. There is a lot of fat in the Australian economy, although not very evenly spread. After seeing how people live in other countries the idea that Australian's are doing it tough seems a tad out of proportion - it's all relative.