Tight Credit for How Long?

From Reuters - "UK's Barclays sees 1-2 years of tight credit - BBC":

Bank lending will take 1-2 years to return to normal, and asset prices need as much as 18 months to stabilise, Barclays (BARC.L) Chief Executive John Varley said in an interview released on Saturday.

This economic mess will simply take time to work through but work through we must:

"I think that we will see the process of reduced borrowing play out over at least the course of the next 12 months ... maybe 24 months," he said.

"That is a painful process, it's a process through which the world absolutely has to go," he said.

Stating the obvious:

"As soon as asset prices stabilize, then we will see the financial economy recover. And when will that occur? That will occur some time over the course of the next 18 months," he said.

It took years to get to this point. Really, no surprise that it has already taken some time and will continue to do so before a solid recovery takes place. This housing and economic mess is like a clogged drain. Slowly, over time and with major neglect, the clog gets worse until one day it becomes completely clogged and only a major effort will fix what could have been prevented with simple basic measures. If only ...