These problems arise from fraud, deception, whatever you want to call it. The last thing we need is to fuel more irresponsible lending in consumer loans tied to the BOE rate. Small savers are needed to put some honesty back into the system. Why penalise us further by cutting rates?

Carol, Derbyshire,

If Gordon Brown really wants to bring some talent into the government in this time of crisis he should make Vince Cable Chancellor, a professional economist, replacing Darling - a lawyer.
"Government of all the talents" !

Karim, Towcester, UK

As things stand, slashing interest rates now would have a similar effect to that of plactic surgery upon a dead body...pointless.

Mr cable is right, but not being entirely honest. So grave are things for Britain now, in time we will be compared to present day Rhodesia.

David Downes, Chester, UK

As a houseowner/ no mortgage my house has hugely 'increased' in value thanx to Gord's boom but I agree house prices shld NOT be propped up. Houses in the SE are unaffordable. Vince as ever is talking sense. But Gord WILL re-stoke house prices: he wants to be elected & negative equity = lost election

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

If interest rates minus inflation is negative then why save anything in sterling? That's even ignoring tax on savings. I would already have been better off putting all my money into Euros earlier in the year, if my pounds are to be watered down to nothing then frankly why bother holding them?

Phil, Welwyn, UK

Cheap money is a major cause for our current situation. We need to start putting a proper value on money and encourage all forms of savings rather than continue the failed low interest rate policy that has feed the 'Irrational Exuberance'.

Crowther, Silsden, UK

So even Vince Cable, who has culitvated a media image of common sense, follows the Gordo line of destroying Sterling to inflate away the debt. No sooner will there be this rate cut demanded by the political-media-economic elite than savers will, in their droves, move their money overseas.

Paul, Coventry,

The current turmoil is partly to blame because interest rates have been kept artificially low for too long. Have we not learnt anything from this mess?

scotty, london,

Do these fools learn nothing? Greenspan cut rates to head of a recession 2 or 3 times and we have the current melt down as a result. You cannot have a boom without a bust. Rate cuts will only delay and exacerbate the problem.

Simon, London, UK

There is no point in lowering interest rates if the banks don't pass them on. The people who provide the real money to banks, depositors, then miss out too as the banks reduce interst rates to savers. The only winners in this, funny old thing, - the banks who created the mess in the first place.

Jim, Norwich, uk

You don't just need to look at financial tsunamis, look at other types of crisis.

1. Getting rid of Hitler.
2. Healing traumatised communities post 9-11.
3. The winter of discontent.
4. Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.......
5. 1997 Tory meltdown.

Lessons there, anyone?

Rhys Jaggar, Leeds, UK

Thank you Vince !! At last a politician who is serving up concrete ideas rather than an a toilet roll of empty rhetoric !!

Ian, Littlehampton,

Vince Cable is one of the very few politicians to add gravitas to the Lib Dems and it is a pity he cannot have better access to power to effect his theory. I disagree on one point - there has not yet been a collapse in land values and effecting his proposal now may artificially keep prices high.

Tim, London, UK

Let the market do as it must. There will be losers, but there will also be winners with whatever action (or inaction) you take. Time all politicians took note of what S Yogarajah, Harrow, , UK has just said. The LD's clearly don't represent the poor.

Simon, York, England

Jim if the government inflate their way out of this it's the purchasing power of money that changes, not the 'real' value of assets.

Tom, London,

Thanks Vince, I didn't know whether to vote Liberal or Conservative at the next election; now I know I definitely won't vote for the Liberals. Good to know you would undo one of New Labour's genuinely good decisions. BoE independence only when things are going well.

John Dickinson, Poole,

With interest at their present levels, we already have some people buying GOLD which doesn't produce any income and yet reduces Bank liquidity. Reducing interest rates will only drive more peoples savings out of the Bank retail markets exacerbating the liquidity problems and driving up inflation.

Mick Owen, Bolton, England

If interest rates are cut it will undermine the value of Sterling, which is already undergoing a painful correction and will lead to largescale increases in the price of food, so much of which is imported. Although we need to cut rates, this is not the time to do so, inflation is far more dangerous.

Tony Makara, Manchester,

Surprisingly, ever sensible Vince Cable is overlooking over inflated asset prices that robs the young and those who have not yet acquired assets to benefit those holding the bloated assets. There is no fair or sensible way to tackle the current predicament without lancing the boil.

S Yogarajah, Harrow, , UK

i wish vince cable was working with the tories - he is a wasted asset being with the Lib Dems

paul, nottingham, UK

Vince Cable is one of the very few politicians I can listen to without getting angry. He is a man of obvious skill and clear integrity, unlike the current shower of career politicians and incompetent non-entities. I am not a Lib-dem supporter, but I dearly wish he was Chancellor.

Jack, York,

since the government are nationalizing banks using taxpayer money, why can't they force rescued banks to offer reasonable mortgage rates to save further collapse. my mortgage is rising from 4.5% to 8.2% and I can't find a lender willing to remortgage, as price drops have left me with only 10% equity

Phil, London,

I think the suggestion here to 'solve' the problem by inflating our way out of it, as in the seventies will finally be adopted. It gets our indebted government and population off the hook, and rewards the profligate while penalising the thrifty who will see the real value of assets tumble.

Jim, london,

Mr Cable keeps raising this idea of Housing Associations buying up extra capacity. Buying up land is ok, but RSLs have build quality and overcrowding standards to maintain which regular builders do not comply with. We don't want another 1960s tenement problem in the years ahead.

Alex, Liverpool, UK

would the 700 billion US dollar not buy all the houses with troubled mortgages in the US? If so would that not be the root of the problem?

henry, notts,