European countries followed the British approach, and now the US have adopted it too.
Politicians in the US have expressed concern that the taxpayer investment is not being passed back by way of lending, and if Britain is a case in point then they are probably right.
It is time for the government here to be decisive and get heavy handed with the banks who have had support. The threat of share holders losing all their equity may just do the trick. Without the bailout that is what would have almost certainly happened.
This issue of lending takes us back to our coverage earlier in the week of criteria so harsh that only a select group of people seem to be able to get mortgages at a reasonable rate. So I have put up the responses we had from brokers to this issue in a seperate article today.
