The Institute for International Finance has just released an interesting briefing paper on the trends in risk-weighted assets (RWA) among major banks before and after the financial crisis.
Public administrations are fulfilling their role perfectly in going into debt because this finances projects that could not be undertaken by the private sector.
One of the main objectives of post-crisis financial regulation has been the severing of the nexus between large banks and national sovereigns, such that private losses do not lead to taxpayer bailouts.