Doing the right thing

Throughout the long financial crisis, the authorities have mostly been playing catch-up. The UK government’s Friday decision to try to comfort bank depositors – after unnecessary dithering – is typical. The move is late but should help defuse one crisis. Alas, it’s not the biggest one. The dilemmas of wholesale funding and banks’ capital weakness remain unsolved. After months of suggesting that legislation was required to increase the deposit guarantee from the £35,000 introduced shortly after t...