At least we should be thankful for small mercies: the European banking system is still standing.

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India's banking system is small but growing fast.

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He will insist that pledges to extend opportunities to the 50% who don't go to university, to get the banking system to support small businesses and greater regulation of the energy and train companies are all examples of just that and show that he is pursuing a different approach not just from the Tories but from New Labour as well.

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When housing crashed, it was the lack of new asset backed securities that pushed the economy into recession by freezing up the banking system and destroying consumer and small business credit markets.

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But since one of the benefits of QE is that it largely bypasses the banking system, it is less helpful to small firms that rely on banks for finance.

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The Cypriot president said if he hadn't accepted the tax on bank deposits, the European Central Bank would have stopped providing emergency funds to the country's top two lenders which would have led to the collapse of the banking system, the bankruptcy of thousands of small businesses, massive job losses, and ultimately the country's exit from the euro.

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Protecting small depositors is a commendable public policy but leaving larger depositors unprotected is likely to produce a European banking system in which liquidity runs are a serial problem.

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