Don’t pass the buck, Gordon — this is your mess! Would you lend money to someone who might soon lose their job and not be able to pay you back?

The news that the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR) system of setting interest rates is running into trouble was surprising at first glance.

The once-booming UK mortgage market is dissolving faster than an Alka Seltzer on a Saturday morning. That seems to be the picture the Bank of England is painting. Yesterday it published one of its many surveys — the quarterly Credit Conditions report.