It's not really working, is it? This bank bail-out, I mean. The mortgage options are disappearing; loans - even overdrafts - are being withdrawn or not rolled over; and bank shares remain marooned in the doldrums.
Yes, I know that nice Mr Darling is promising to force the banks to resume lending, but I rather think that we have heard such protestations before, only a couple of weeks ago.
And the banks are between a rock (sorry) and a hard place - they need to save up their pennies to buy back their shares from the government (or, in the case of Barclays, from the Middle East) or alternatively pay out the rather expensive ticket attached, in addition to which they have borrowed rather a lot from the government (some £600 billion, according to Pesto) which will also have to be paid back. Meanwhile the FSA is demanding that they boost their capital adequacy.
Where will it all end? Here, maybe.
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