Commentary: The death of the consumer is hugely overstated - 2004-01-27
How can the economy go through this latest crisis?
The economy will survive just fine.

We don't expect the current level of consumer debt to cause a recession nor to slow the recovery. In fact, consumers seem quite healthy from a financial perspective to us, having just restructured their balance sheets through a massive volume of mortgage refinance activity.
Read the full story at Bankrate.com

Fat-cat insurers 'out of touch' over mortgage endowments - 2004-01-27
The heads of Britain's biggest insurers were today berated for being out of touch with reality for taking fat-cat pay rises as millions of homebuyers face huge shortfalls in mortgage endowments*.

MPs tore into some of the most influential figures in the life insurance business as they conceded the cost to the consumer of the spiralling endowment crisis could end up at more than £50bn.
Read the full story at This Is Money