Published at 11:47, Wednesday, 17 December 2008

CUMBRIA’S bishop has criticised banks for chasing huge profits.

RT REV GRAHAM DOW

The Bishop of Carlisle, the Right Reverend Graham Dow, the Anglican bishop for the county, blamed banks for the current financial crisis in the latest diocese newsletter The News.

He said: “This is a difficult Christmas but there is much to learn from what has happened.

“The sober mood indicates a degree of chastening. All over the world massive debt has built up.

“In order to keep satisfying our greed for more, households, banks and even nations have borrowed far too much. And then panic set in and loans turned bad.

“Confidence collapsed, shares were sold, loans were unavailable. We call it the credit crunch.”

The bishop said the world’s banking system cannot operate without trust and the faith that money will be safe and grow in value.

The bishop said: “Why has it happened? Because the insatiable desire for more has driven us beyond being prudent in the loans we took out; and the banks, looking for greater profits, took huge risks in the extent of their borrowing and lending.”

He said the consequences were that good projects are being abandoned and small businesses are being denied what would have been routine loans.

He believes the greatest losers in the credit crunch will be the world’s poorer nations who lose the investment they need, who cannot now borrow to meet their obligations and who will have far less to spend on health, food and education.

The bishop added: “Money has become our No1 idol.

“Humankind will always choose something to worship, something to be the supreme focus of our motivation and attention.

“If that is not God and his just ways, it will be something else; most commonly in Britain, a high standard of living based on money and possessions.”

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk