Final Word from Wednesday, June 17, 2009

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"Blame it on the banks" is the recurring theme for explaining why the crisis began and why it won't go away. Prof. Jan Švejnar, who himself works for a bank, told Rádio Impuls that it will be very difficult to exit from the crisis until banks start lending again at normal levels. This is the main reason the worst is not yet behind us, he said. Prof. Milan Zelený agrees, but only up to a point. He told Impuls that if the trigger for the crisis had not been mortgage loans, it would have been something else. The crisis had to occur, he said, because there was an accumulation of overindebtedness, inefficiency and bureaucracy. It now requires a fundamental change in the way of life and in the way decisions are made, he said. Otherwise, he added, there will be another trigger. He expects the next one to be unemployment in the U.S. It's a time bomb, he said, and when it goes off, it will affect the entire world. [Czech Republic University of Michigan Fordham joblessness]