I've just been to Iraq on a credit crunch mini-break. No, really. Well, in truth, it would be more accurate to say I'd been on a break from the credit crunch. I didn't miss it one little bit: the apocalyptic headlines, watching the stock markets plunge and gallows humour in the pub after work.
I heard no demand for government guarantees of savers' deposits in Iraq. That's because people don't put their savings in a bank. Instead they stash their cash – in dollars, of course – in a safe at home.
In normal times, we would sneer at the equivalent of stuffing cash under your mattress. Panicky savers around the world aren't laughing now.
One middle-class cash-stashing Iraqi I spoke to admitted there is a slight chance that his life savings could be lost in a burglary. His answer? Whenever he's away for more than a couple of days, he takes his money with him. "Last time, I took $120,000 with me - no one will rob me," he said, straight-faced.
Because crime is so low in Iraq, he's probably right. Iraqis don't have to worry about mortgages either because there aren't any in their country. To get on the property ladder, homebuyers have to empty their safe and pay in cash.
Insurance isn't an issue either. That's because, you've guessed it, there isn't much to speak of in Iraq. If you crash your car in Iraq, you pay for the damage on your car and the one you hit. Apparently, in the vast majority of accidents, drivers reach an amicable settlement voluntarily. The key to reducing your liabilities in road accidents, I'm told, is to make sure you only hit the cheap rust buckets, and not the brand new SUVs which are becoming increasingly common on the roads.
Of course, the absence of financial products such as mortgages and car insurance is borne of necessity – the lack of a modern banking system – and not of choice. But it means that Iraqis have to rely on commodities which are now in short supply in the financially sophisticated west: trust and honesty.
