The American investment houses lent good money to bad and then falsified their balance sheets to give it a false investment rating by bundling bad with good so as to pass it off to banks elsewhere in the World who were suckers enough to take it on.
Just like Lloyds brokers with the US asbestos scam

jbentley, Loule, Portugal

"Addressing MPs at Prime Ministers Questions, Mr Brown took the chamber by surprise by revealing the emergency rate cut which he haled as evidence that the Government was prepared to do everything in its power to help businesses, mortgage-holders and consumers."

I thought the BoE was independant?

Anthony Lester, Brum,

I completely agree with Mac from Biella, on short selling being extremely unethical, but I guess we will never have an explanation as to why it is allowed to happen...

Carlo B., Harrogate, UK

So thanks to the government, savings will be inflated away until worthless and house prices will go back to rising to unaffordable levels. Is that really a better situation to be in? Maybe for the middle aged home/BTL owner but not for everyone else.

Time for the young taxpayers to leave the UK.

Phil, Welwyn, UK

My contacts at Nationwide tell me that even if the BoE reduces rates to 1% the property market will decline by 50% within the next 2 years. Labours attempts at making us all feel rich again are futile.

john, milton keynes,

All of this will result in world wide stagflation. On the positive side, as the world economy grids down so will carbon emmisions. So as we all suffer the environment will get a rest. Feel better now?

jon, Austin TX, USA

tut tut ! that's ' hailed '

Roland Tait , Barnsley,

Can someone please explain to me why "short selling" or selling something you haven't got is permitted. Right now the idea of profitting from others misfortune seems totally unethical to me.

mac, biella, italy

Reining in executive pay? I don't care about that. I want to know what is in it for me! I'm paying to rescue banks so I can continue excluded from the housing market?This is insane.

Fabio C, London, uk

Too little too late

Steve, Langley, UK

Whats the betting that all the major banks who benefit from this bailout do not adjust their bank rate by the the same 0.5% as the BOE... and help the consumers as well. Shame on those who do not pass on the full 0.5%. Consumers should vote with their feet.

James Nicholls, swindon, uk

The next 6 months are going to get very desperate and uncomfortable. Be warned.

Dr S Patel, Melbourne, Australia

Too Little Too Late.

Dave, Liverpool , UK

Point of order - I didn't hear any complaints about bankers when we were driving this country to 20 years of unheralded prosperity, and record rates of home ownership! I saved my earnings sensibly. Why didn't others instead of over-loading their store cards?

Jeremy, Kensington, London

So what? Lenders will do what they want to do regardless. They have been for well over a year now or have you not noticed your prices of everything rising?

Victor M, Cricklewood,

Too little, too late!

Noel Falconer MEcon, COUIZA, France

Who decided on the universal 0.5% reduction in bank rate, the independent MPC or HM Chancellor? Has the BoE lost its independence?

Richard, Chesterfield, UK

A bad mistake.. After all the ballyhoo about BOE independence and inflation , this is a knee jerk reaction.

hamad Lone, London, England

And yet our own bank, the Northern Rock have still not passed the interest rate cut on to their owners and mortgage holders.

rob, ashbourne, uk

When will they realise that the situation we find ourselves in now has taken a while to make itself known, quick fixes, knee jerk reactions, will not solve the crisis.

My money is on the Stock Market falling very dramatically over the next few days/weeks.

Graham, Littlehampton,

Is anybody ever going to be held accountable for all this ? If I ran my small business the way governments and institutions ran theirs I would be out of business and there would be no one to help.Building societies used to lend what was saved , it was prudent and it worked,lets give it another go!

Neal, Reading,

Just shows that we live in a ''media driven age'' as Mr. Tony Blair once said. That's a bit sad...

Alex G, Madrid,

As part owner of all these Banks will I get a big bonus now - or even get a vote on the board?

Ed, Rugby, England

This is by all means panic, but where on univers are going to get the liquidity that markets in general need to stop the meltdown No one knows, central banks can't just print money, It is to late for a lot of governments and world economies. Criteria of lendin has to be inforced by law from now on.

Lec Neli, London, UK

I notice that, despite the ECB reducing the Euro interest rate by 0.5% at the same time, the £ has plummeted against the Euro since mid-day today. More inflation for all. We are all paying via devalued pensions, devalued £ and devalued savings and interest. G.B. and A.D. have raised THEIR pensions.

Richard, Alicante, Spain

So, 0.5% is all it takes? Well why did the brains not do this weeks ago?
And this is called "Leadership".
Idiots, one and all.

Alan Hargreaves, Holywell, UK

Should have been 1%. Why are politicians and 'experts' using rational methods in an irrational situation?

Chris, London,

So much for decoupling.

Nick, Clayton, USA

It is good old INFLATION
financial professionals will disagree rigorously
official numbers will show easing of the money market

Peter, Berlin, Germany

Where exactly is the £500 billion coming from?

James Hargreaves, London

That's would I would like to know also!
No money for anything else apparently....

Graham, Littlehampton,

Picture looks like a drowning man trying to save himself by pushing down on the heads of those around him to me.

Andrew J Iddon, London, UK

i dont think its gonna work !

brian, coventry, england

Ditto with UK banks - HSBC and Barclays had record profits last year - now there are market problems they are expecting to be bailed out - where has all that profit gone? It is NOT the taxpayer that has caused this problem but it IS the taxpayer who is fixing it!

Neil, Ipswich, UK

Where exactly is the £500 billion coming from?

James Hargreaves, London,

What savings people do have are being eroded by inflation and interest rate cuts.

How can the government makes things worse for the ordinary citizen? Subsidise over-zelous lending and over paid bankers from the tax payers pocket! Thanks Gordon, close the door on your way out

Phil, Walsall,

in paragrah nine 'part privatisation' should read 'part nationalisation'. although neither are entirely correct.

D marusza, Cardiff, Wales

oh great a half point cut.; another Weetabix for breakfast and dancing in the streets

peter c, Devizes, Wessex

This smacks of desperation. We've tried everything else, what to do next? I know, lower interest in collusion with everyone else.

Pitiful governments.

John, London,

Australia cut interest rates yesterday by 1% before any action in the UK or Europe.

Emma, London,

UK retailers, housebuilders and manufacturing have got their desired interest rate cut so their sales should now soar.

Except they won't.

The great British public have realised it's Rip-Off Britain we live in.

This crisis is by no means over..

Andrew, London, UK

A lot of cash I know, and serious questions still to be answered, but between keeping whichever bank we have lodged our savings in, alive, or giving £83000 benefit handouts to financial migrants, who have nothing to do with the UK, is the question,I know where I would want the tax payers cash to go

Peter East, Grays, UK

Once the banks recover and they return to the usual billion pound profits, wouldn't it be nice if they paid some windfall tax to return the favour. But 'no' - we hear the bankers clamour - you can't stifle such a jewel in the UK economy with regulation and taxes! Just so depressingly predictable.

David, London, UK

Monday 13th is a coming...the economic fundamentals are all wrong, two decades of added-value, high consumption and low production, risky leverage and speculation. Watch out as investors panic on that day. Freefall........................................

Stephen Pain, Odense, Denmark

UK inflation was likely to climb above 5.0 per cent in coming months, but should then drop back as lower energy prices, combined with spare capacity in the economy, kicks in.
Don't be fooled. It's all smoke and mirrors. Inflation may drop back but prices will continue rising. NO DROP IN PRICES. NO

Richard, Alicante, Spain

Thanks mate - good work fella.

Now I've got some dry cleaning I need doing, and my hedge needs cutting, do you think you could have a chap come round!?

Paul Tinker, Henley-on-Thames, UK

The ultimate Public Private Initiative!!

David, Dubai, UAE

nice work, you're only half an hour late

simon mawdsley, fulham,

One of the ways to return confidence is respect grassroots opinion. When people see the irresponsible finance executives fired, and also the politicians, then they will more likely believe things will improve - that's how you improve a football team. Maybe 20% of execs caused 80% bad loans

Hugo van Randwyck, London, UK

DEBT CANNOT BE SOLVED BY BORROWING MORE. THE DEBT WILL JUST GROW....

We are witnessing the death throes of a terminally ill western capatilist civilisation.

Just a few more goes left at the pig trough and then.......a new order beckons.

Andy, Doncaster,

Why won't the government say that they guarantee all of our money?
what do they know that we don't?

Dave, London, UK

Hooray - we're all saved. Now I can get back to worrying about dying of bird flu or the Y3K bug

andrew, london,

This is the best possible news for the housing market on which so much of our economy depends. The Government should be prepared to instruct another 0.5% cut next month if needed as the consumer needs to feel confident in order commit to major purchases such as housing or cars. well done.

Paul, Wokingham, UK

What created this crisis? Cheap money.
How does Gordon Brown cure it? With cheap money.
What can be learned from this? We need a PM who has studied economics, not Spin.

Peter, Liverpool, UK

An announcement a day early - all this shows is more panic - the country is sinking and there is nothing Captain Darling can do to stop it - hold on tight it is only going too get worse !!!!

Derek Trotter, Peckham, England

Hooray - finally some action - lets hope this works - it may be saving the bankers behinds, but for every banker who loses his job - 7 other poeple do a s a result.

Matthew Smith, London, UK

Not really a shock if you were listening to the mouthpiece of the CBI on Radio 4 this morning

Alistair Kipling, Birmingham,

Shame it wasn't done earlier...

Jen, Notting Hill,

Well, we haven't got any money so lets just shaft the savers and use theirs to give cheap credit to the idiots who want everything without saving for it. Long live the credit boom. Hooray. Problem solved!!

Richard, Alicante, Spain

Alot of CVs going into HSBC in the near future me thinks

chris, rochdale, UK

One hates to be a kill joy, but aren't we just stalling upon the inevitable? Sure, it's good for people to feel asif governments are doing something positive, but in the end, it's only window dressing.

The Americans will dump the Green back in favour of the new Blue back, at a 10 to 1 exchange.

David Downes, Chester, UK

Surely part funding / nationalisation of all the banks goes against EU laws how are they getting around this?

Nationwide is getting money but isn't a bank so how is the government / taxpayer going to benefit as shares are not issued?

Paul, London, UK

Lower interest rates and here i thought us savers were going to get some decent return at last to what little money we do have, but no they have cut them again.

Someone once said to me spend today because tommorow it will cost you more, i reckon they are right, our money will become worthless.

Russ, ILminster, Somerset

I hope this was conditional on banks reducing mortgage rates, if not then what was the point - banks would have even more cash, oh, hang on, at least their bonuses would be covered…it all makes sense now.

Dean, Manea, Cambs, England

Now that the Govnmt now has direct control over the greedy banks, I hope they will act to ensure that they:
1) Cease charging 25%+ interest to the poorest,
2) Put an end to rip-off bank charges,
3) End the mis-selling of useless insurance policies,
3) Stop test case and repay monies now.

Ozzy, Oldham, UK

That's nice, when there's were profits the uk resident non-domiciled pirates plundered. Now there are losses the Uk taxpayer step in. Nice one that.

Plunder, City Of London, Londonistan