So When Will Banks Give Loans?

A couple of pieces in the last few days in the New York Times, one from Andrew Ross Sorkin and the other from Joe Nocera, about banks still not lending, and - according to Nocera - the U.S. Treasury never having really wanted to make that a priority anyway. Rather, Treasury is wanting the banks to consolidate, take over, merge. A scathing piece:

Treasury wants banks to acquire each other and is using its power to inject capital to force a new and wrenching round of bank consolidation. As Mark Landler reported in The New York Times earlier this week, "the government wants not only to stabilize the industry, but also to reshape it." Now they tell us.

( I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel as if we've been sold a bill of goods. )