Do we depend too much on the banking sector?
While there are many areas of concern which have arisen due to the ongoing UK recession, one particular problem for many people is our growing dependence on the banking sector and the power this has given banking companies in the UK. You only have to look at the lack of competition in the mortgage market, high credit card interest rates and a lack of liquidity in the business arena to see how each and every area of the UK economy depends to a different degree on the UK banking sector. So how can we change this?
Even though the UK government has taken substantial stakes in Lloyds bank and Royal Bank of Scotland, and attempted to use this influence to increase liquidity, this is in many ways just a halfway house. However, it is very difficult to operate under a "free market" and complain when the going gets tough, discounting the boom times when money was freely available to many people in the UK. Although we do have to take the rough with the smooth there is also a need to increase the regulatory framework within the UK financial sector, a sector which has in many ways operated under a banner of "self-regulation" for some time.
Again, finding a balance between operating a free market and attempting to directly influence the level of liquidity and competition in the industry is difficult.
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