Punishing banks is now doing more harm than good It starts to set a dangerous precedent for the future, a future when private sector resolutions of failed banks, as opposed to state-backed bail-outs, will be required. Who in their right mind will ever come to the rescue of a broken bank again, given what's now happening to rescuers such as JP Morgan? Surely we are getting to a point where institutional recriminations of this sort are proving counter-productive. And this goes for the UK, too. Sure, pursue those individuals who were guilty of bringing down institutions but a line needs to be drawn. The purge must end. The UK has lost at least 100,000 jobs in banking and financial services as a result of the crisis, the vast majority in ordinary, back office or branch type roles. If lawyers and regulators want to pursue justice they are going about it in entirely the wrong way and resulting in an entirely unfair outcome for ordinary people and the economy as a whole. Wolseley's US busines is heating up If the Bear Stearns story is a reminder of how the hurricane of debt got started in the US, Tuesday's results from Wolseley are a reminder of how the cost of the storm's collateral damage is still being counted. The Reading-based company is the world's largest supplier of heating and plumbing equipment, among other building materials, and was among the first companies to reveal the scale and scope of the damage to come from the financial crisis. Plumbing might sound a humble trade but it's a good lead indicator of demand in the housing and property sector, and therefore the wider economy, too. With its exposure to the US repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) market, along with new build, it was uniquely positioned in the eye of the storm when the sub-prime crisis began to break. As early as November 2006 it laid off 2,000 US workers thanks to trends Telegraph Business had identified formally back in February of that year in a series labelled "Decade of Debt." When it announced the redundancies this column wrote: "Wolseley's housing-related problems are a sign of things to come. In the grand scheme of things, 2,000 jobs axed in the US labour market is nothing, but they point to more trouble ahead for everyone. Highly indebted consumers in the frame of mind to stop spending money on homes are also likely to cut spending in other areas, such as retail. Job cuts in the US buildings material sector are likely to be followed by job cuts in US retail and other consumer goods sectors. Confidence is being eroded on a daily basis in the US and that bodes ill for us all. Fast-forward to October 2012 and the company has announced annual results that show its US business continuing to improve. The RMI market is "resilient" and new residential construction is continuing a "modest recovery." Its business supplying industrial sites has also grown strongly over the 12 months to the end of July. After a slow start in 2006, the company under new management got to grips with the need to restructure in the face of its growing problems and must be given credit for a lot of self-help as well as simply being able to weather the storm and wait for the cycle to turn. In six years it has halved its workforce to 40,000, three-quarters of which was done by selling non-core operations and a quarter through redundancy. There's plenty in the US, and around the world, that can still go wrong and blow Wolseley off course, but it is reassuring to know that the fundamentals are improving and that having identified it as an early victim of the credit crunch, we can now describe Wolseley as very much part of a recovery. John Menzies shows benefits of putting the public first John Menzies celebrates 50 years as a quoted company on Wednesday. It's important to highlight because the advantages of a public listing are not trumpeted enough, particularly to the many small companies that want to expand. Bank loans are not the answer. Equity financing may well be. A public listing gives companies access to equity capital for growth that is priced for the long term and reflects a company's risks accurately. And when banks stopped lending in the crisis, it was the stockmarket that financed many companies through the bad times. But there is a halo effect of a London listing from the corporate governance and regulation that creates a reputational dividend when it comes to winning business. It can be expensive, but it's still very much worth it.