Several factors help explain the reluctance of banks to lend, despite general improvement in financial conditions and increases in bank stock prices and earnings.
First, bank funding markets were badly impaired for a time, and some banks have accordingly decided (or have  1  For an overview of the crisis from an international perspective, see Ben S. Bernanke (2009), "Reflections on a Year of Crisis", speech delivered at "Financial Stability and Macroeconomic Policy," a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, held at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August 20-22.