House prices collapsing, pensions losing their value, gold reserves sold off cheaply, the FTSE below the level it was 10 years ago, taxes increased stealthily, a huge deficit going into a recession - now that is a party that is not fit to run the British ecomomy!

MacFarlane, Barking,

Who enjoys the lowest interest rates in history? Nobody that I know of.
Who will lend the money that Brown wants to borrow? Nobody lends to a government which has a currency in freefall.
How will still greater borrowing and spending lead us out of the mire?

Victor , Swanley, England

Recent events have not transformed Brown into a great leader. He was backed into rescuing two bust banks whose failure posed systemic risk the UK. Their plight was not down to US sub-prime, but poor lending and over-extended balance sheets; all presided over by the weak regulatory model he set up.

Steve, London, UK

Kaletsky articles can be quite well thought out sometimes, when he remembers all the fundamentals. Here regrettably, he appears to have forgotten some of them. Debt is the main missing ingredient in his analysis. As for his forecast recovery, given enough time, almost any prediction will come true.

Steve Buckel, Braunau-am-Inn, Austria

One despairs. We now have one political party which deep down still appears to believe that centralised direction and management of the economy is to be encouraged for its own sake, while their opponents espouse the very policies whch turned the Wall Street Crash into the great 1930s depression.

Bob Gartside, Llanberis, Caernarfon, Gwynedd

It seems the ones losing out in the weakness of the pound are the ex-pats living in euroland. We rely on pensions paid in sterling and converted to euros and now find our income less than it was in November 2006.

David Moore, Alcalali, Spain

It all makes sense when you realize that (professional) politicians (who know nothing else) have no idea what is going on.

Peter, Berlin, Germany

Osborne was perfectly right to comment on sterlings fall and on unfunded Tax cuts being dangerous.

We need VAT cuts to 12.5% which I said last year and a reduction in givernment spending and five a day merchants.

Peter, Chelmsford, England

Your just another left winger spinning the facts.

D Case, Newqauy,

Anatole has lost the plot.

R A Connell, Guildford, UK

Gorden Brown, the man thats been able to hide the
real national debt of ..... wait for it

1.2 trillion. ( £ 1,200,000,000,000 )

Thats gives the Uk a public debt nearly a 100% of GDP.

Its a deep recession now or something worse later.

M. Walker., Nr. Bromsgrove., Worcs.

Mike is correct in saying that British manufacturers are not geared to the export market. My response is Maggie's TINA (There is no alternative). Export or die.

Duncan, Colombo,

We know that UK import cost are far in excess of the cost of exports. Accordingly then a sustained fall in the value of the pound is an economic disaster. Its about time the so called media experts 'told it like it really is'.

Graham Duncan, Austin (Tx), USA

We will see another short term Labour fix. Big tax cuts before Christmas, dash for the poll in Jan/Feb. Then worry about the economy when they have secured their jobs.

Tom Mein, Chania, Crete

So the fall in the pound will help our exporters.

To export what, exactly? What do we manufacture that the world is clamouring to purchase in large quantities?

Our manufacturing sector is shot to pieces, isn't it?

David Garfield, London, UK

Refund for UK savers as Iceland seeks IMF rescue

The article implies that this resolves the issue for all individual savers. This is simply not the case..
Many ordinary people advised in the main by financial advisors
invested their savings/pensions in KFSIOM & todate have lost
everything.

j baird, richmond, surrey

Please, a serious article deserves serious comments, not politically-motivated one-liners. Both Kaletsky and Buiter are highly respected ecomonic commentators. Don't look out of the window and say 'it can't be winter' just because the sun is shining. Try using your brain first and your mouth second.

Mike Donovan, London,

lovely article, and I agree that a falling pound is wonderful news for our exporters.

There is though one key flaw in the argument - we don't make anything any more in the UK.

We have to face up to reality. New Labour has bankrupt Britain. It is both a morally and financially bankrupt govt.

Robbie, Brighton, UK

Britain is a net importer, the weakening pound means we imports will be more expensive ie. inflation.

We do not have the manufacturing base to make any significant gains from it. Whats left of our 'national treasures' will get sold off at bargain basement prices overseas. RIP

chris, Dubai,

To take advantage of the proposed situation you have got to have something worth exporting - not financial instruments and sky high priced housing. Brown is leading us to the cliff spending money we don't have, while the rest of us are preparing for the downturn and tightening our belts.

TJP, Bedford, UK

Time will tell on this one. Anatole has it right politcally. Economically we have yet to see but London is a safe haven and for the rich Chinese, Indians, Oligarchs and Arabs alike, being President for life isn't always that great a job! A run on the pound is likely to be temporary. We'll see

Gavrilo Prinzip, Bromley, UK

Once again Mr Kaletsky thinks what he sees now is the future. Mr Browns popularity will only last as long as his largess. When all governments adopt the textbook solution what happens to the comparative advantage. It becomes a race to the bottom and the first one there is not the winner.

Stephen Hargreaves, Hobart, Australia

Everyone's very clever now, but to echo the Queen, when a banking disaster's that big why did no one in Britain see it coming?

Thomas Bell, London,

Blaming everything on Paulson's failure to bail out shareholders of irresponsible banking institutions is wrong. If the US government had effectively underwritten all the bad debts in the US economy, the US credit rating would have plunged & the helpful recovery in the dollar would not 've occurred.

Robert Cookson, Milton Keynes, UK

Regrettably Mr. Kaletsky has missed the point. "Gormless" Brown (the seller of our gold reserves at the bottom; the man who has incresed taxes by 50%; the man who has locked 6 million English people into subsistence living as "captive electors" etc., etc.) is economically incompetant - and unlucky !

Fred Russell, Dubai, UAE

What is really required is; a vast reduction in the size of the State and it's non-job, overpaid, employees.; taxes and pointless regulation slashed; a currency that retains its value and a national focus upon creating wealth - not stealing it from wealth-creators.

Fred Russell, Dubai, U.A.E.

Devaluing your currency is a double-edged sword, particularly when Britain is no longer a major exporter of goods. The size of the Eurozone has a direct impact on the decisions people make as to the security of using it as a reserve currency, as is the conservative policy stance of the ECB.

Paul Galbally, Carlow, Ireland

Anatole is right, the 'pain' of low IRs & devalued sterling are the shot term horrible medicine we need to recover. The alternative would be like Russia who have hiked rates to 12% to support a collapsing rouble. That will lead to hyperinflation which WILL make their population long term poorer.

Bertha Vanation, Plymouth, Devon

Nadeem, especially, but others too. Can you say 'Competitive Devaluation' ? Try doing that with your hands tied by Frankfurt. Making exports to Europe cheap (70% of our markets, for better or worse), and their exports to us expensive, Mervyn and Gordon have played a blinder, IMHO.

Geoff Harrison, Beverley, UK

Beggar thy neighbor? A race to the bottom?

Peter Adam, Chevy Chase MD, USA

Kaletsky is about as accurate is Mr Magoo playing darts - thinking that the collapse in sterling will lead to an export led recovery looks back wistfully to a long gone UK economic era.
More relevant-why lend to G Brown who only wants to pay you 1% interest & you might not even get yr money back

mike, melbourne,

Unlike the UK, Japan's government debt is counter-balanced by massive private savings. Hence the long term stability and recent strengthening of the Yen. By contrast majority of UK private wealth is tied up in housing equity and that is being eroded at an unprecedented rate.

Neil Moulder, Amersham, England

Actually I agree with Nadeem, the UK economy is on the edge of a very very steep cliff. If Brown gets it wrong, and there is a 50-50 chance he will, then watch GBP go into complete freefall and the rest of the economy with it.

ipd, Tokyo, Japan

Always interesting to read these columns and then see how accurate the predictions are. This guy has a crystal ball with more cracks in it that can be counted.

Christopher H, Canberra, Australia

Devaluation of a currency is a shortcut in trying to revive an economy but comes at a price: it makes the UK people poorer. Can Mr. Kaletsky please explain why the Germans always wanted a strong German mark (and now euro) and how they still managed to maintain a positive balance of trade?

Eric, NL, NL

Why invest in the UK? Because there is less incentive to save as interest rates have fallen meaning less risk in investing. Also, this means our British goods are cheaper for foreign countries to export meaning potential growth in that sector. The only problem is imports be more expensive.

Alex Parmar-Yee, Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom

Oh the good old days when we used to say how cheap it was to live in France, and with a better standard of living. Here's hoping global warming secures a few good years of hot English summers before the exchange rate corrects and we can resume our national passtime: purchase of the cote d'azur.

BP, London, UK

Nonsense, no numerical analysis, no comprehension whatsoever of currency deflation. Why invest in the UK when the pound is dropping 5% per month? If you believe this garbage put your money where your mouth is and invest in UK house building companies tomorrow.

Nadeem, St Andrews, Scotland