Rob Cox In London

Citigroup, BofA: Fighting to be zombies

Even the poster children of the current banking crisis, like Citibank's Vikram Pandit and Bank of America's Ken Lewis, may be able to grind their way through the recession like the Japanese banks did in the 1990s. But, as a consequence, Japan's economy lost a decade. The alternative -- and one the US consistently urged on the Japanese at the time -- is to bite the bullet, recognise bad assets and recapitalise.