As we stare into the headlights of financial doom transfixed by a banker's language that we were never meant to understand perhaps we can learn from their mistakes and remember that for us ordinary mortals there is no such thing as a free lunch. No one needs to feel that they don't understand what's going on although the temptation to switch off in the face of a sub-prime, liquidity and toxic debt is very strong. Over the last week I've heard numerous bankers and dealers talking patronisingly, with the brass neck only to be found amongst that ilk, as if the whole thing was an act of God and they have the right to continue their work because that's what we all need..... them. I hope by now that everyone is aware that a large number of banks and demutualised building societies (more banks) have been taking our money and investing it in financial "packages" from which they hoped to make a profit but without any idea whatsoever what on earth the packages contained. It is still difficult to believe that this pass-the-parcel game is what the "great and the good" were playing with our money and stability. The operation spread through the financial world like the plague and was no more secure than paying £100 for a piece of lucky heather except in this case they didn't know whether it was heather or lucky.

Of course in our own way we joined in with the madness, how many of us while house prices were increasing shouted "stop, stop I don't want my home to increase in value". Of course we all wanted a piece of the action even if our logic was imperfect and we were never able to recover that increased value because exactly the same thing applied to the next house we might want. Meanwhile our children or people wanting to put a foot on the property ladder were unable to even start because of the incredible high prices. While the inmates were in charge of this particular asylum new owners were encouraged to take on ever larger amounts of mortgage debt by our "rock solid" bankers. Interestingly a similar sort of problem occurred in Spain 20 years ago and for that reason the Spanish government put in place regulations to ensure that banks had sufficient money in their coffers for that "rainy day" and mortgages were always less than 90%. And perhaps the most significant of all stepping outside the legal requirements involves fines of 1% of the capital concerned….a lot of money, and an incentive to think carefully before making irresponsible decisions.

So this is where I see we are now. Governments are bending over backwards to encourage banks to lend to each other (that's all the current log jam is) by offering them money, I've yet to hear of a chief executive of a bank or dealer apologise for the appalling state that they have brought us to and you can be pretty sure that their undying faith in their God-given right to do what they want will remain unchecked. So in the face of this and the arrogance of a group even now willing to put pressure on shares by lowering their value and at the same time taking our money in order to rescue their mess, we really are at a point where some form of legislation must be passed similar to the Spanish model to ensure that these delinquents are prevented from taking our hard earned wealth, jobs and futures.

To confirm my worse fears as I write this UK bankers are squealing about unfair competition because the Irish government is willing to protect people’s savings in their major banks. They really don’t get it do they?

And of course in 18 months the newspaper headlines will be screaming – "house prices up, up" and we’ll have forgotten it all! Me? I hate roller coasters!