Memo to bankers everywhere: Taxpayers did not rescue you because they love you. They rescued you because they need you. The rescues were intended to ensure the flow of credit to creditworthy businesses; yet that flow of credit seems to be slowing to a trickle. How should governments respond?

Let there be no mistake: government support for the banking sector was necessary. Without it, several large banks looked at risk of collapse, and the panic among banks and their creditors could have brought down the entire financial system. Yet just because the rescue was necessary, it was never guaranteed to be sufficient.