Giving banks a break is no guarantee of growth

A key justification of the bank bailout in Ireland was that it would allow banks to keep lending to support the domestic economy. But they have only managed to keep credit flowing at anaemic levels since receiving billions in recapitalisation funds.

Part of the reason for this is that banks have been made to shrink their balance sheets so they pose less of a risk to the taxpayer. You can't realistically ask banks ...