Convential wisdom is correct Mr Kaletsky and you are wrong. Your slash-rates-to-encourage-further-borrowing scenario only reflates the debt bubble to put off the day of reckoning.

Paul, Coventry,

The Olympics could be a great assistance. The government could bring forward the construction of the £12 billion site: utilise the unemployed constructions workers, stimulate demand for construction manufacturers and stimulate economic activity.

jimmy, Birmingham,

While broad support is necessary, at some point, every firm can not be bailed out. So your blame on Paulson for not bailing out Lehman Bros is misguided. If not Lehman, then another company would have gone bankrupt. Currently nationalization is the best strategy, but long term ideas are needed also

Chrisfs, Berkeley, USA

Don't hear it often enough, but time has to be called on the finance sector's execs taking millions out of the system at the expense of Joe Public, who instead of sharing in the economic growth he helped create was consoled with credit (until the prop flop, that is) rather than wage increases.

Douglas, Arlesheim, Switzerland

Why has no one highlighted the fact that Wall Street conned the worlds' banks into buying junk masquerading as AAA investments - con-artists!

A.Kaletsky is only trying to keep his investments and property values afloat he does'nt give a damn for Joe the plumber - come on Anatole admit it.

Stuart Crawford, Guadix, Spain

Depression is inevitable. History shows we get one every 75 years. So guess its our time. The real problem is Global Govt debt. The truth is Govt around the world can't repay their debts. Even if the Chinese have the capacity to absorb all Govt global debt do they have the political will to do so

Rupert, London, UK

As usual another idea to fix a problem never encountered before and for which any solution will be just guesswork. Allowing people to borrow more or cheaply will only add to pile of debt swilling around in the system and which was put there by in our case this Government.

george, Exeter, UK

Excellent Mr Kaletsky.

Just the right formula.

Let's hope the MPC is listening to you.

John Collins, Bromley, Kent

King and is his BoE colleagues with one exception have totally misread the situation. They all should go. They are out of touch and out of date and should look at the Reserve Bank in Australia which cut by 1% this month and will cut by another 1.5% by Christmas.

Peter, Melbourne, Australia

At heart is the utterly mistaken concept that we all benefit from free trade. Quite the opposite to the reality. Western nation states are being trashed as capital and people are allowed to move in vast amounts across the globe. A global depression will, with luck, stop it. I look forward to this.

Richard, Birmingham,

Cut rates? So we spend not save? What do we spend it on? Imports? What happens to Stirling? Will Asia still lend to us after what has just happened to the last (similar) cunning plan!

R James, Bristol,

The British public didn't go into the recession of the early 90's carrying £1.4 trillion of personal debt. There is no appetite for more debt. The BoE can cut interest rates to zero for all I care. Like millions of others I'd just use the extra money to pay off my debts - not go on a consumer binge

Lance Grundy, Liverpool, Great Britain

The BOE and Treasury have the wrong peple in charge. King's Moral hazzard is totally the wrong approach and charging high rates is negative on recovery prospects.

We should have set up a sovereign wealth fund, allowed the public to invest and used that vehicle to invest capital in the banks.

Peter, , chelmsford, England

When your debts are in trillions, and assets in billions you need new rules, and experts. The whole planet could be in negative equity for all we know.

ged, manchester,

Brown will not reform his regulations because he will never admit to a mistake and is bashing banks and the Americans because he wants them to take the blame for the recession, falling house prices, unemplyement, etc.

R Mason, London, uk

Anatole you continue to underestimate the danger we are in. Stagnation is the least of our worries. If this almost insoluble economic problem isnt fixed the world we know will dissolve into a very dangerous place. Democracy is a feeble religion, that is fuelled by prosperity. New thinking is needed.

sel, manchester,

Given that excess borrowing driven by low interest rates was the cause of a bubble that has burst. It is odd that the cure for the disease is to encourage more borrowing.

Many people have debts to service that they now realise are not affordable and they aren't going to take on more debt.

marksany, Essex, UK

I agree with rick, melbourne completely.
Folks - including your good self Anatole - do not seem to understand the fundamentals of the 'correction' we are going through. We followed the US Pied Piper! Turned the whole world into a Giant Casino! Agree with you Paulson beyond a joke, though. Cheers.

William Kent, Brandon, Canada

Antole, very simplistic view. Its far too late to significantly alter this path. Your suggestion would create further upward inflationary pressures, whilst reducing fiscal potential against any country that didn't agree/reduce their resp. currency, leaving us worse off.

Harry, North, Italia

We are in a recession now!
Cutting interest rates won't work so well if a significant part of the population with savings to spend see their income cut and if banks are unlikely to lend, whatever rates are. And why would you want to borrow now anyway?

stephen goddard, london, uk

This is exactly what Vince Cable has suggested and again at the time widely ridiculed. Why aren't the Liberal Democrats getting more credit for their analysis during this period?

Niall Rowantree, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

What about all the people - particularly pensioners like me - who NEED interest from savings accounts to support themselves? If rates are to be very low some will go out, buy a new car, and then apply for state benefits instead. There has to be a middle way to move everyone on, not just some.

David, Driffield, England

The test of whether Gordon Brown has also been overly punitive to bank shareholders is whether any private organisations will offer a better deal.
If debt was the problem why encourage more debt not saving?
Forget carbon, think economy, fuel cost and resources.
AGW is already proven wrong.

David Cage, Highworth, UK

Cutting rates will reduce the burden of servicing existing debt but given how maxed out the consumer is and with property falling this is highly unlikely to encourage further borrowing and fuel a recovery. Again you are looking for the brighter side in all this and it just isnt there unfortunately.

GH, NY, USA

Meredith Whitney doubts that the banking package in the US will work. The money wont flow through and fundamental problems will remain. The lady has a nasty habit of being right.
I will listen to her opinion before anybody else.

Christopher H, Canberra, Australia

We need another concerted action from all Central Banks to cut rates globally.
As we enter recession, it becomes clear tha inflation will abate rapidly as well as oil prices, which should retrace towards the 50 USD levels.
Let's brace ourselves for some additional pain and defaults...

Martin, London, United Kingdom

The chance of what you suggest happening is frankly zero, until there is a new UK government. Everything being done by Brown is a futile attempt to shore up his own position. Wholesale reform of the IMF, an attempt to show some leadership, meanwhile the Lloyds TSB HBOS deal looks in serious jeopardy

Tom Howard, Bordeaux, France

It is impossible to cut taxes for low-income households in the US - they are already net recipients of money from the government.

At least if you give them even more money, they're sure to spend it immediately. Despite the $1 trillion a year spent on the poor in the US, they're still broke.

jt, NYC, USA

As Dave of Sofia says just reinflating for another high consumption bubble is not on. This financial crunch is a teaser for the crunches which will emerge later if we do not get the planet and our activities in better balance. Let's spend to get our economies low carbon and low resource intensive.

Mike Norton, Nagano , Japan

Key thing is to ensure there is no competitive devaluations or trade barriers or other forms of economic nationalism - that way depression lies.

Neil Murphy, Cromer,

The bubble was caused by the fact that with a fiat currency there is nothing to stop the govt from printing as much money as it wants. A custom made suit costs the same in gold as it did in 1914. The answer is to go back onto the gold standard.

Phil Hodgson, Nottingham,

The government could effectively cut Mortgage Interest Rates tomorrow by one fifth.

Re-introduce Tax Relief on Mortgage Interest with limits e.g. restricted to the basic rate and a maximum amount.

I note that Switzerland allows this.

Perhaps we can learn something from them?

M. Sheridan, Oldham, UK

The ponzi scheme you call international trade is unstainable. The real issue is the uncompetive nature of western workers not lower interest rates. It is clear that living standards will decline until an equalibrium is reached. Or the west becomes more efficient through investment not consumption.

Stephen Hargreaves, Hobart, Australia

I think the weakness here is in your final paragraph. What worked in 1993 worked because the crisis was - mostly - in the UK. You can fix one country when the rest of the World is mostly healthy. It is less clear what happens with a globally coupled economy of interdependent nations.

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA

I disagree.
Now is the opportunity to re-write the economic rule book.
Priority should be given to protecting the environment, relieving global poverty and the development on non growth economic policies!

Dave, sofia, Bulgaria

You still dont get it do you Anatole -have you learned nothing?
The excess liquidity has to be drained from the system, the dead wood cut away, house prices to fall, and the strong will survive.
Desperately printing money to in a futile attempt to reinflate the bubble is really not the way to go.

rick, melbourne,

Yes once upon a time you consistently got it right, when exactly did you turn into the Alastair Campbell of Economics .

Doug, London,

The fundamental mistake has been the BOEs fixation on contolling inflation alone; a task proved impossible in a global economy. They must move quickly now to lower interest rates as the inflation figures are going to fall dramatically from here on in. Anatole's thinking is spot on.

john, milton keynes,

Dont hold your breath, Mervyn King and the MPC have shown themselves to be more interested in their reputations and showing tough love rather than serving the interest of the economy. I agree, rates should be cut drastically but I am not hopeful..

john, London, UK