"Don't worry - be happy," the theme tune for a road-safety TV campaign, also sums up the prevailing attitude to debt.
Monday, January 26th 2004, 7:13PM
by The Landlord
As a result, many Western economies are perched on mountains of borrowed money. A combination of cheap money, easy access to credit and optimism has led private borrowers to amass debt at a prodigious rate.
In New Zealand, aggregate household debt, both mortgage lending and unsecured lending through credit cards, overdrafts and store cards, reached $90 billion at the end of September 2003, according to the Westpac Household Savings Indicators Survey.
