Here's a less banker-generous view from Simon Jenkins:
<quote> Who did you see racing from home over the holiday to keep Britain at work? Bankers? You must be joking. Bankers were feathering their balance sheets with £50bn in real money given them by Gordon Brown as a reward for their antics in 2008.
The people who were rescuing the economy were consumers spending what little money the government had left them. They packed supermarkets, malls, high streets and eBay websites, helping keep the retail sector, its suppliers and thus the economy going.
The government has now allocated to the banks the equivalent of £1,000 from every man, woman and child in Britain. This was supposedly to "maintain confidence" and thus continue the flow of lending. The flow has not occurred. It must be the most costly single failure of policy in peacetime. Yet the cry from politicians and the financial press is for more. Economic policy has not progressed beyond the Somme.
<clip> Banking is a profession that excels at making money for itself. For 10 years it mesmerised Blair and Brown, who showered it with tax loopholes, offshore profits, PFI contracts and vacuous government consultancies. Ministers and bankers enjoyed a revolving Whitehall door.
Frustrated ministers are still expecting the City to rescue the economy in 2009, continuing to trust it with the public's money to an extent that they will not trust the public. They seem unaware that bankers do not rescue economies. They rescue banks. <end quote>
full text at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/31/simon-jenkins-comment-debate-banks