High street banks hold out their begging bowls

``As the markets opened for trading yesterday, the Bank of England said immediately that it would make a further £5 billion available as panic caused interbank lending virtually to dry up. But as soon as the offer was announced, the bank was deluged with requests for almost five times that amount, with demands totalling £23.6 billion. '' -- This is bad. Very bad. Of course, essentially the same thing is happening over here on this side of the pond; the Fed is just more secretive and coy about it.