Its hardly anything new. Anyone who couldn't see the crash coming were pretty dumb.
We were in a scenario where credit was cheap and easy, and people were encourage to take out new credit cards with balance transfer facilities to pay off other credit cards.
I actually know someone who bought a new car on a credit card, and thought they'd never have to pay for it, continually transferring the balance. Idiots.
It was blindingly obvious that this credit would dry up (the catalyst, possibly less predictable, was in the US), and a significant financial problem would hit a very large number of consumers. The lenders would lose money as these consumers would simply go bankrupt as they were unable to afford the high credit card charges, and no options to balance transfer. The lenders would be impacted enough not to be able to lend, and the whole house of cards would go tits up.
Now I'm just the stupid kid from the local comprehensive, so if I was able to foresee this...
Sometimes, I hate it when I'm right
