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Recession? What recession? Not if you're an investment banker.

When you thought it was the banks that got us into this mess, isn't it odd that banks seem to be getting out of it so fast, and with gigantic profits.

Half-year results for Barclays and HSBC on Monday morning showed both of them registering profits just below the £3bn mark.

It would be far more if it weren't for "the real economy" seeing so many loans going to the bad, harming the banks' balance sheets.

In Barclays' case, that was up 86% on the first half of last year.

This is a reminder of one of the long-term implications of the severity of this recession.

The clearing out of weaker competition means those companies that survive can look forward to profits being boosted as a consequence.

Housing boom

Not many are enjoying that windfall yet, but Barclays and HSBC look like they're on course to bounce back into hyper-profits when the worst is over.

It doesn't stop there.

The slamming of the brakes on the housing boom has not stopped the demographic pressure towards smaller households, which means Britain is heading for a substantial housing shortage.

Once building starts again and confidence returns to the market, we risk moving swiftly from housing shortage to steep hikes in prices again, meaning the risk of yet another bubble.

And there's another post-recession rebound, highlighted on Monday by The Independent.

The chief economist of the International Energy Agency, which advises the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, is saying the depletion of oil reserves is moving at a much faster pace than expected.

Oil shortage

Fatih Birol says the decline is nearly twice the rate calculated two years ago.

That means an oil shortage, and upward pressure on prices.

That fear drove the oil market up to $147 per barrel last summer.

Recession drove it down again to a low point below $33 in December.

Monday's positive news from the banks and positive results from business surveys helped oil prices upwards today, with Brent crude above $73.

Birol is forecasting an "oil crunch" within five years, as the economy recovery boosts demand for oil, only to find there has been under-investment in new reserves by credit-strapped oil companies.

That's the under-investment happening right now, with oil majors including Shell and BP last week confirming the problems the sector is in.

'Prepare ourselves'

Here's what the IEA economist has been saying to The Independent: "One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day.

"The earlier we start, the better, because all of our economic and social system is based on oil so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of money and we should take this issue very seriously."

Birol goes on: "The market power of the very few oil-producing countries, mainly in the Middle East, will increase very quickly. They already have about 40% share of the oil market, and this will increase much more strongly in the future."

This casts a new light on the calculations about Scotland's remaining oil wealth, and on the valuation placed on Venture Production, Scotland's tenth biggest company, which Centrica wants to take over to secure its supply contracts.

But of course, it means far more than the impact on Scotland's oil sector.

A sharp rise in oil prices could blow economic recovery off-track.

It has big geo-political implications, exposing dependence on the Middle East.

And for all those reasons, it gives new impetus to the search for alternatives energy sources.