The proportion of households with low education (at or below lower secondary school level) holding government bonds fell from 49 per cent in 1995 to 23 per cent in 2000 and 15 per cent in 2004; it increased slightly in the following years (up to 20 per cent in the 2008 survey).
The liquidity management role of central banks also led naturally to their engagement in other areas of financial stability policy, including exercising a degree of oversight of the banks that they were lending to. Obviously the world now is very different from what it was in Bagehot's day.