I wouldn't believe everything you read in the press Alex.... we are in this mess because the everyday man in the street have borrowed too much money and is now less likely to pay it back. This is causing house prices to fall in the US etc etc... this is then impacting things like the CDO market. That is why money markets are frozen too much leverage everywhere including households.
The political answer is to blame the city as it doesn't cost votes. Did you know banks were 40% of total UK corporate tax takings for the government? thats a big hole to fill. Funny that.... the wanabee that is 70k in debt and defaulting on his loan is sat next to the the BTL investor and others who shirk responsibilities they signed up to and they sit at the root cause of this crisis.... it is these loans not being repaid that creates the huge losses for the banks.