Nu tager Bank of England bladet fra munden

When Britain's party finally ended, the result was an economic wasteland of over-indebted consumers and over-leveraged banks. In a repeat of Japan's experience, the credit taps were turned off and growth shuddered to a halt. Japan ended up with a zombie economy in which zombie banks were lending to zombie companies. Firms that would in normal circumstances have gone bust were kept on life support by lenders who themselves were kept in the realm of the living dead courtesy of easy credit and softly-softly financial regulation from Tokyo.

Threadneedle Street wants banks to raise more capital without choking off lending to the economy, something which is easier said than done. The state has a big stake in two of the biggest UK banks – RBS and Lloyds banking group – and George Osborne has made it clear that he is not going to ask the taxpayer to stump up more capital. With investor confidence in banks at a low ebb, drumming up enthusiasm for rights' issues could be tough.

King says there are other ways round the problem, such as banks selling off non-core parts of their business or by raising money through contingent capital – debt instruments that can be converted into equity in periods of stress.

Bank shares rose slightly yesterday because there had been concern that King would specify what individual banks would have to do and by when. It would be a mistake, however, to believe that the issue of bank capital has been kicked into the long grass. The FPC is deadly serious about this because until the banks are sorted out the economy will remain in limbo. Raising interest rates will mean that the policy of "extend and pretend" towards non-performing loans will have to end. Banks will have to be robust enough to cope and at the moment they are not. So, the Bank means it all right. The real question is why it has taken it so long to get tough.

Storebror skrev:Problemet er jo at debitor ikke har en reel betalingsevne svarende til det lånte midler.

Hvis bankerne skal øges egenkapitalen for at kunne stå imod tabene fra debitor så skal pengen jo stadig komme et eller andet sted fra.

Der er to muligheder: kreditor eller de fremtidige generationer.

Hvis staten redder (som de har gjort og gør) bankerne uden at lade kreditor tage tab så placeres byrden for festen på de fremtidige generationer.

Problemet er at man forsøger at skjule hvad der sker. Dermed er økonomien i limbo, hvilket yderligere straffer de fremtidige generationer - specielt dem der er ved at etablere sig.

Man har et naivt håb om, at man kan vokse sig ud af problemerne så de fremtidige generationer ikke opdager den byrder der er blevet lagt på dem.

Matematisk kan det bare ikke lade sig gøre at vokse sig ud af problemerne da der ikke har været real vækst i den vestlige verden, det var alt sammen fremrykning af forbrug fra fremtiden til nutiden.

Storebror skrev:

Raising interest rates will mean that the policy of "extend and pretend" towards non-performing loans will have to end. Banks will have to be robust enough to cope and at the moment they are not.

Eller sagt på en anden måde: Man forsøger at rekapitalisere bankerne med at undertrykke den naturlige rente.

Vi skal have tabene hen til dem der havde gevinsterne af spekulationen. Dem som reelt sad med tabene i 2008. Så hurtigt som muligt, så dem uden ansvar ikke straffes som det er tilfældet nu.