How much of the bailout money is actually supporting companies that provide jobs? I had a chilling conversation with a senior banker last week. He stated that almost three-quarters of the taxpayer lifeline provided to rescue British banks has gone to property lending. This means our system has not changed. We should be funding working capital in operating businesses, not helping landlords. A distorting addiction to real estate is part of why it all went wrong in the first place.

This recession is different from others of the past half-century. Unemployment is rising at an unprecedented pace – and the jobs may never come back. Just as with war, I wonder if we will cope with the casualties. How will whole swaths of our nation deal with the prospect of gradual destitution stretching out for years to come?