Banking Sector Viability and Fiscal Austerity: From Rhetoric to the Reality of Bank Behavior

Given the massive government support for banks during the financial crisis, the purpose of this article is to address briefly if there is a tendency towards long-term "decoupling" of the banking sector from the rest of the economy. It also seeks to understand whether the support that governments offered during the financial crisis and the ensuing "Great Recession" reflects a unique phenomenon, or whether — through its fiscal policy actions — this support is recurrent in nature.