Banking on the State

In the conclusion to their paper 'Banking on the State',and looking back to the last 800 years, Andrew Haldane and Piergiorgio Alessandri of the Bank of England,state:
For the majority of this period, the state was reliant on the deep pockets of the banks to finance periodic fiscal crises. But for at least the past century the pendulum has swung back, with the state often needing to dig deep to keep crisis-prone banks afloat. Events of the past two years have tested even the deep pockets of many states. In so doing, they have added momentum to the century-long pendulum swing. Reverting direction will not be easy. It is likely to require a financial sector reform effort every bit as radical as followed the Great Depression.