Alan is absolutely right. It is a simple fact that, using all measurable elements, there was a crisis, and a solution to it that worked.

Delving through the jumble-sale of Jardine's arguments, I can only surmise that you don't feel simple success - saving jobs and the economy - is or should be the aim. And I feel you pull yourself up short here and there, e.g. the mother whose child wants money for something probably houses her child via a mortgage. Willing to bet.

I continue to be reminded of that description of austerity as a way of countering economic crisis: that's when you keep sacking people until they get a job. I won't insult you by explaining why this would be silly. Though I will point out again that, silly or not, it's what - until Australia demonstrated how the opposite works - other countries were doing as a response to the GFC, with disastrous results.