As our banks collapse, Britain must learn to do something else --- The Pub Philosopher

The Iceland on Thames quip made by Brown ally Will Hutton yesterday seems to have struck a chord with a number of people.

Like Iceland, Britain's economy is dwarfed by its banking sector which threatens to drag the whole country down into the the swamp of endless debt. At £2000 billion, RBS's balance sheet is bigger than the UK's annual GDP which, according to yesterday's EU economics data, is just over £1400 billion. Taken together, the UK banks make our economy look puny. 80% of their business is overseas, yet it is the British taxpayer that will pick up the bill for bailing them out.

Via Laban Tall, I discovered this wonderfully pessimistic blog UK Bubble. Yesterday, its author Alice Cook said:

Today was an historic moment. The RBS and its barely comprehensible loss signaled the end of an era. The days when finance was the engine of the UK economy are definitively over. The UK banking sector has become the 21st century equivalent of coal mining; over-staffed, over-paid, and profoundly unproductive.

Continued at the Pub Philosopher, plus you will find many interesting links not reproduced here.