Dirigente del Partido Demócrata Liberal británico pide red protectora contra "crac inmobiliario"

December 4, 2007 (LPAC) Britain's Liberal Democratic acting party leader Vince Cable said yesterday that the UK is "almost certainly on the brink of a big crash in the domestic property market." Cable, speaking on BBC Radio 5, called on the government to work with banks to arrange for people to stay in their own homes even if the house is repossessed, so that there will be no "flood of distressed selling and people [being] pushed out into homelessness.... At the moment there is no safety net at all." Cable also made a statement to the Parliament.

"The Government should be working with banks to prevent large-scale repossessions, and keeping families in their homes through properly regulated leaseback or shared ownership for families in arrears," Cable said in a statement posted on his website yesterday. "There needs to be a return to responsible lending by the banks, which have recently behaved too much like casinos."

Cable said that, "Gordon Brown's reputation is built on economic growth, but there are ominous signs that the bubble is now about to burst.... With the credit crunch now biting and the economy slowing we could see millions struggling to pay their debts, leading them into mortgage arrears, repossession and negative equity.... If there is a housing crash, the Prime Minister will be at fault, and will have to take responsibility for causing misery to millions."

In the United States, prominent Democratic Party figure Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) this week became the first, and so far only, Presidential candidate to call for specific safety net measures to protect households from the crash. She proposed a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures and a five-year freeze on adjustable mortgage rates.

Both Cable's and Clinton's calls pick up one part of Lyndon LaRouche's Homeowners and Bank Protection Act. But politicians must understand that not only homes, but also the regular bankins system must be preserved, if their constituents are going to survive.