IF YOU want a quick summary of the debt crisis, you can't really do better than these short paragraphs from yesterday's HSBC seminar.

Until 2008, asset values and levels of debt were determined by optimistic expectations about future growth which, in hindsight have proved wide of the mark. Even if a second recession is avoided, the evidence now strongly suggests that previous estimates of trend economic growth were too high.

That, in turn, means that the collective financial claims on future income are probably too high, as they have been based on a previous, more optimistic, view of future levels of economic activity. It also means that those who took on debts in times past, fully expecting income gains to allow them to repay their creditors, are now in trouble.”

It's all about doling out the pain. At the moment, it's appearing in two ways; high unemployment and, for those in work, wage growth that has lagged behind inflation. A fall in living standards, in other words.