I don't see how those links back up that assertion. The second one gives a more detailed explanation of the mechanism I outlined. If you're saying the market always checks excessive leverage by pricing risk fairly, we saw how well that worked in 2008!

This might interest you. It shows the impact of recent increases in capital reserve requirements on corporate lending.

https://www.financedigest.com/post-crash-banking-regulation-...

> The ongoing impact of post-crash banking regulation on corporate lending is a case in point. Thanks to reforms such as Basel III, banks must now hold a far greater portion of their capital in reserve.Some banks may face even stricter requirements in future; only this month Sir John Vickers called for UK banks to be forced to shore up their financial buffers further in the face of renewed market volatility.

> These measures are primarily motivated by a desire to make the overall system more stable, to ensure adequate reserves and liquidity in the case of another major shock. But part and parcel of this is the fact that it is now far harder and less profitable for banks to lend to a range of businesses.

> As a result, banks have been steadily withdrawing from large areas of corporate lending as they look to reorient their focus to key relationships and diversifying risk. This has left a gap in the market: many corporates are finding it near impossible to get the level of financing from banks that they previously relied upon.