Over the past 10 days, Wall Street chiefs have been queuing to announce that for them at least, the worst is over. They could well be right. But what about the rest of us?

The key text here - much quoted of late - is from John Maynard Keynes: "Whilst the weakening of credit is sufficient to bring about a collapse, its strengthening, though a necessary condition of recovery, is not a sufficient condition." In other words, central banks can fix the credit system, but getting lending back to normal may be another matter.