No one wants it when responsibility is required.

No one wants it when responsibility is required.
I am of the firm belief that the American consumer is as much at fault as the big multinational banks and corporations for the current state of the economy. Here is where I see the difference in reaction to the problem though.
By default the consumer has had to tighten the purse strings. Some are losing their homes, others are losing their jobs, and some are just tightening up after several years of open wallet spending. He money available to help the consumer is a drop in the bucket compared to what has already been spent on banks, investment companies and AIG
. When the homeowner gets a hamper mortgage refinanced under the new Fed programs they are expected to continue making the payments and being responsible for their expenses. The big boys don’t want to be held to that same standard. The latest traap requests dropped to 1.7 billion, down from over 4 billion, largely due to the strings attached to the money.
Going back to the days of double digit growth isn’t likely to happen any time soon, and what it feels like, is that now the party is over, the banks don’t want to stop partying. They don’t want to tighten up except their lending standards. Everyone, corporations and individuals need to take responsibility and tighten up everywhere. Even though I think in US we have seen the bottom, spending is still not the way out of this mess.