It's bizarre how the world distorts our view of things sometimes. For example, this morning I saw the headline RBS reports £44m quarterly loss flash by and thought "Oh they've done well then".

They've done well? Yes, we're now at the state where I hear about a bank losing £44m in 3 months and I'm impressed at their fiscal responsibility! In the same period in 2008 they made £479m, now they've lost £44m and it seems like they're doing a good job, how? Well possibly the £24,100m loss for the whole of 2008 doesn't help. Next to those losses not only does a £44m loss look impressive but that £479m profit is pretty paltry.

Want an even brighter spin on that loss? We're not the US! Yes, the US, where 10 of the largest 19 banks don't have enough money. Let's talk silly money again, 'cause Bank of America (with a name that ensures government bailouts for eternity) are apparently about $34bn short of cash right now (well, $33.9bn but what's $100m between friends huh?) I mean, even the bank which needs the least money is apparently short around $600m. However the best thing about this discovery isn't how much money these banks need, it's how desperately they need it. Yes, they'll need those cash reserves if something no worse than the current economic situation happens. Well that's fine then, I mean we all know that nothing like the current economic situation could ever possibly happen. Erm...