One big mistake they did here after unleashing the banks some years back, was to constantly jack up the interest rates in order to hold back consumption.
It didn't work, since that due to the insane rates, all paper pushes made insane money while it was a burden on businesses and houseowners that had loans in a certain range.
If you eat your cow, she won't milk.....you may have nice beef untill it's finished.
So, due to that, everybody has some trouble.
Consumption from my standpoint was crazy, and I, being on the low end of the wallet could see that very clearly.
Town is only half a mile away, so I go shopping by bike, bring the kids around the same way etc, - it sums up running cars for short distances. That said, my car is dead, so I don't even have one, but the missus does and that's enough.
People made fun of that with lines like "why don't you get yourself a proper 4WD" etc. My reply was "I am fit enough not to need tons of steel to move my ar$e one mile".
Now I meet the same ones when tanking their big cars and ask (with an evil grin): "What's the damage this time?"
