Closer and closer to home

摘要

Little more than a year after the run on Northern Rock, which was halted only by an unprecedented Treasury guarantee to the mortgage bank's depositors, the government had to contemplate a similar drastic step this week to prop up Britain's banking system. The renewed crisis shows how widely mistrust in banks has spread over the past 12 months. And it reflects growing anxiety about the exposure of British mortgage lenders to possible crippling losses on risky loans as the economy falters, the property market falls and borrowers get into trouble.