Opinion - Economic stimulus packages

The question of economic stimulus packages is problematic in the Western economies. Will the availability of large sums of public money to bail out the private sector be enough? Indeed providing larger payments in various benefits to increase consumer spending is questionable when the underlying financial institutions are either reluctant or unable to provide the level of business lending to provide economic growth.

Also the question remains whether the banks and other financial institutions have actually learnt anything from this situation or continue to believe (behind the scenes) that their actions in lending practices and selling dubious debt instruments into the market made any commercial sense other than greed. The bonus system used for the finance sector encouraged that behaviour. In that sense the Wall Street Bull might better be portrayed as the Wall Street goat.