Lending by the banks remains severely constrained, fact. Despite the strenuous efforts made by their press offices to convince us otherwise, the bankers are still not lending anywhere near enough to meet the needs of Britain’s small- and medium-sized enterprises and so help kick-start a full-throated economic recovery.

While there is good evidence that mainstream money is finally getting through to mortgage borrowers – and about time too given the potentially pernicious economic consequences of government (i.e. taxpayer) largesse in the form of quantitative Easing (QE), Funding for Lending, and the particularly obnoxious Help to Buy scheme – lending to business continues to disappoint.

Don’t expect this to change anytime soon. We heard last week that Sir Mervyn King’s final gift to the banks before heading off to do whatever his well-padded pension might allow is to insist they bolster their balance sheets by £27 billion. Eight banks were targeted with RBS and Nationwide singled out – unfairly according to some – for special treatment.

Pretty ripe from a central banker who, in 2007, infamously observed that Britain’s banks were “well-positioned” to withstand any consequences arising from the mis-selling of American sub-prime mortgages.

It also looks as if the Bank of England’s policy of QE is at an end. Its equivalent across the Atlantic – the US Federal Reserve – has confirmed it will “taper” QE out of existence and, with UK inflation continuing to run ahead of its 2.7 per cent target, it’s difficult to see how, or why, King’s successor Mark Carney could continue printing cheap money, of which the banks have been the chief beneficiaries.

While bad news for the wider economy, these developments signal a continuing opportunity for alternative lenders. The new generation of challenger banks and short term lenders should do particularly well given their inherent nimbleness and flexibility. Combined with secure funding and attractive products, the ingredients are in place to provide frustrated borrowers with a full menu of treats to shame the bankers. Brokers, take note.

Elsewhere, we all enjoyed a good laugh last week at the expense of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Hilariously illustrative of how US presidents view senior British politicians, Barack Obama persistently referred to George Osborne as “Jeff”. He later explained it away by saying he’d confused our custodian of the nation’s purse-strings with his favourite R&B singer, 1980s chart-maker Jeffrey Osborne (“On the Wings of Love”, anyone?)

But Osborne has more weighty matters on his mind – or so we hope. Tomorrow (Wednesday), he will unveil the government’s spending plans for 2015-16. The central theme will be a package of additional savings (or “cuts” if you work at the BBC or The Guardian) amounting to £11.5 billion. The squeals of pain and outrage from Miliband, Balls and various (self-) interest groups will be heard around the country.

But don’t be fooled by any of it; nor should you be conned into believing it represents anything approximating to a serious attempt to rebalance the nation’s psychotic finances. It doesn’t, and is simply political window-dressing designed to appease the money markets on whose support we have become addicted.

The simple, indisputable fact is that public sector spending next year will, at £745 billion, be £55 billion more than in the first year of this coalition government. Representing an unsustainable 43 per cent of GDP – and with a whopping £220 billion of it alone going on welfare and social benefits – it confirms we’re a country living way beyond our means and in denial of the harsh economic realities of 21st century life.

So when you look at your next pay packet and wonder where all that tax and NI is going, start getting mad. It’s your money, you’ve earned it and you’ve a right to see it better spent.