South Africans suffer credit crunch - 18 Sep 07

South Africans are spending more than ever before, but while the economy is booming many citizens are living on credit.

Kalay Maistry, reporting for Al Jazeera from Johannesburg, looks at the spending frenzy and talks to some of the people who have lost everything.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• South
• Africa
• aljazeera
• Kalay
• Maistry
• Johannesburg
• shopping
• credit
• economy

[macctosh]

greed greed greed greed greed greed greed greed greed greed !!!!!!!!!!!! welcome to capitalism!!! long live capitalism!!!!!!!!!!!

[k4flopy]

YE MAN 2009 ZUMAbabwe lots of credit till the country is on its knees..

[bananaboattt]

info Yes that's very possible but do you have hard evidence on that? Do you have enough to SUE these people in Court or you would go on to say that also the Courts are part of this "grand scheme?" Not unless you can give concrete and doable solutions, we are just THEORIZING here, nothing more, nothing less.

[bananaboattt]

info Let's do away with all these CONSPIRACY THEORIES since these things are very simple yet people go out of their way to complicate things. Bottomline, to earn some bucks. A Man's/Woman's LOST is another Man's/Woman's GAIN. Hehehehe.

[bananaboattt]

info The basic idea is to SPEND WHAT YOU NEED and not SPEND MORE THAN YOU NEED. What drives a lot of Economic woes in a Family or for an Individual is "spending more than one can afford." You go to Bank for Credit with interest rates. They entice you with a lot of things. In the end, you're not only ZERO BALANCE but NEGATIVE.

[infokemp2]

The fractional reserve banking system means that Central Banks can inflate the amount loans available to high street banks and then cause a credit crunch allowing the owners of the Central Banks and those in the know to buy up shares with pennies on the £. This is considered inside trading when its by people outside of the central banking system.

[infokemp2]

Bananaboatt - I am studying macro-economics at university, I am also studying economic history. For the layman a good film to see is Freedom to Fascism on google video.

Inflation in prices from the money supply increasing is the direct transfer of wealth and buying power from the middle-working class to those who own hard assests.

Authority is not truth, truth is authority.

[bananaboattt]

info I sense strong traces of Anti-Establishment in you. Before you say "the central banks are after what you own", you should say first: THE BANKS ARE AFTER WHAT YOU OWN. Central Banks are merely regulatory in nature, they don't even have direct link to the Consumers (the people by and large).

If there's someone who should get informed, I think it's you. Hehehehe

[IheartLatinoMen]

they should be saving instead of buying unnecessary things but it will change the face of africa

[infokemp3]

Get informed. Everyone should try to understand at least a little bit of economics just like if you want to stop someone being able to attack you you could learn boxing/jujitsu or if in US marksmanship for your own protection. The Central banks are after everything you own and your freedoms to, economic knowledge is civil defence!