Banks Still Refusing To Lend

The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) continues to fall from credit quake extremes, today falling to below 100 basis points (3 month) above the base interest rate that was cut in a panic move to 3% earlier this month. However as the below graph illustrates a 1% spread is still uncomfortably near credit crisis extremes and therefore implies that the banks are still reluctant to lend to one another which was confirmed by the Bank of England Governor Mervyn King who stated that extreme measures may be necessary to force the banks to lend again which in the final analysis implies nationalisation of the whole of british retail banking sector.

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