The credit dichotomy

If you haven’t already, do read our latest cover story. The Telegraph follows it today, and Robert Winnett has a good analysis about the problems piling up on these voters Labour had come to rely on. 

Some CoffeeHousers have asked: is it so surprising that the sub-prime crisis is concentrated in poorer areas? Of course not, but the Experian data which George Bridges provides for us shows in clear focus just how unevenly it’s distributed. For a while in the credit bubble, you could hardly turn on satellite television without seeing adverts saying “CCJs? Been refused credit before? No problem”. For the middle class, the credit bubble meant cheap lending rates and, ergo, extra spending money. But their asset-to-loan ratio broadly stayed within manageable levels. It is in the poor areas that they were led into believing in a new era of low cost credit had arrived, and asked to borrow accordingly.