Banks. Why are they so utterly hopeless?

I agree, "too big to fail" so governments will have to bail them out (and Government's only source of "income" is tax of course ... so, as you say, "us")

However, I think that if Retail and Corporate banking is not under the same roof as Investment then the knock on effect will be less. Retail and Corporate will need their own liquidity (in order to be a "regulated bank" and satisfy regulators requirements), so if Investment bank falls on hard times that doesn't cause the same (currently shared) liquidity to be squeezed by investment arm's failure and knock-on on the other guys - they would have their own liquidity and carry on accordingly. Holding companies etc. would catch a cold, but not liquidity / lending ratios and all that jazz in the individual Retail / Corporate banks.

Fixing the "Greed" culture would help too ...

Mind you, I know Squat about economics, so I'm just assuming it could be that way, I'd dearly love someone who knows about Economics to explain it to me (and also why a country can increase their borrowing every year without ever paying, or intending to pay, anything back - I must ask my bank manager if he would lend to MY government - I can't believe he would say yes!!).

Only proper economist I have known and been able to ask that question to said "If you find out would you let me know" which was a rather concerning!

 

Very true, always reminds me of that catch phrase "The computer says no"

The days of being able to go to the bank with an order in hand and asking for a short term loan or bridging finance are long gone.
Strange how they are the first ones to run to government with hands stretched out in bad times yet when it comes to lending (that same money that they ultimately got from us) they suddenly become a bunch of tight (insert expletive of choice here).
One thing that the USA has which is not so popular in both the UK and SA (could be wrong) are brokers for investment capital.
These brokers represent a bunch of wealthy individuals (and corporations) that are prepared to lend to small companies.
What the terms are and how well they are regulated is open to debate but at least it's an option in some cases.

I suspect that would be the answer from most of them.
Talk about flying by the seat of your pants.

 

There are such companies and individuals here. They are called 'venture capital' companies. I worked for one for a while (not the investment company, but the man that owned the investment company. He still owes me £9000, which I'll never get back, seeing as he fled the country (I know for fact I wasn't the only one he owed, and I suspect some of those he owed were considerably more powerful than me).