For example, one could hardly imagine that today's awesome array of international transactions would produce the relative economic stability that we experience daily if they were not led by some international version of Smith's invisible hand. The inference is not that people always act rationally in commercial transactions. The periodic bubbles in product and financial markets prove otherwise.
Indeed, one reason that credit growth has been weak, especially in peripheral countries, is that the risk adjusted returns for banks on loans have been very subdued relative to returns on securities portfolios – especially domestic government bonds. Moreover, as credit conditions further ease and the macroeconomic outlook improves, there should be an endogenous effect on borrowing conditions.