Losing Lloyds

Goodness, how the mighty have been laid low. Two large British clearing banks have been destroyed by one bad purchase: RBS by ABN; Lloyds by HBOS. I am heartened that the government has extracted a reasonably high price from Lloyds for its rescue: RBOS got away a little more lightly. A lot of the attention recently (and reasonably) has been focussed on the revisions to AIG's bailout (is it now V4?) and Merrill's dancing before the BoA purchase closed. But, rather quietly, the UK government seems to be acting somewhat sensibly. Now if only it would actually do something with the control that it has acquired, we might be able to move forward rather more quickly.