The fundamental problem facing the banks is a lack of capital and the refinancing options they have been faced with give them little commercial alternative but to attempt to shrink the size of their loan books (deleveraging is the jargon) and find ways of generating fresh capital in a cost effective and sustainable way. Robert Peston is at his very best in this blog article and the added bonus is an interview with Jim O’Neill the Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs which makes the case for a State Lending Bank.

This afternoon I am updating my regular chartroom presentations on the UK economy and the UK housing market. I will link to them here and make them available for downloads in other blog entries.

A hat tip to Paul Bridges for alerting me to the Peston article.