I don't know what the answer is - it's pretty depressing, however you look at it. Strangely enough, my bank, which wasn't terribly friendly last summer, is now falling all over itself to offer me loans.

Gordon Brown was a diabolical chancellor by encouraging this reckless lending and then selling off most of our gold reserves. Now he is throwing more money at the banks and we are going to be paying for it for decades to come. Right now the UK is up a creek without a paddle.

We based our economy on financial services which has gone pop, we used to lead the world in manufacturing but we now import all our goods, and our North Sea oil and gas reserves are quickly diminishing. In other words, where is the cash coming from to pay for Brown's desperate stimulus packages?

These are dire times and things are about to get much worse so would the last person to leave the UK please switch off the lights.

I agree with Paul. The UK is in a total mess.
It seems odd that the government is bailing out banks to help stimulate lending when customer borrowing is precisely what got the banks into this mess in the first place! However at this stage I think government bailouts are the only way to prevent total economic meltdown. The idea of nationalisation is not one that appeals to me however. Gordon Brown and his government failed to regulate the banks and to stop this situation from occurring in the first place. Goodness what would happen if they were in charge of the banks altogether!!

I don't think these financial firms, nor the politicians involved understand just how we feel about the irresponsible behaviour that got us in this situation to begin with and why on earth we should have to pay the consequences - after all where is this money coming from, at a guess I'd say taxes.

The pound is taking another hammering today - a pound buys less than $1.4 and it's at a record low against the yen at 127. In fact, it's plummeting against most currencies. Not long now before Sterling becomes completely worthless.

Thanks for all your comments. If, as seems increasingly likely, both RBS and the Lloyds HBOS megabank are to be nationalised what do you think the ultimate outcome will be? Alistair Darling has already said that the government is not in the business of running banks, so what is it going to do once it finds itself in charge of a few?

Do you believe that these institutions will somehow be returned to the private sector once economic conditions are improved, or are we looking at a permanent expansion of the government's portfolio?

Though I do understand all of the points above – and in many instances agree – I do think we need to take comfort in the fact that this isn’t the first time our economies have faced mass difficulties. The histories of our financial services are potholed with economic crises and time and again the markets have recovered. Sometimes, we have to face the fact that things are going to get much worse before they get better.

At least with nationalisation and with the incompetent Mr Brown at the helm, things will be as bad they can be and the only way is up.

Going back to the state of the pound - I can't believe how bad it's doing. Makes it so difficult to shop on international web sites! Joking aside, it's a really sorry state of affairs.

Sterling falling again against the dollar today. Get out now and stick it in gold or another currency like the Aussie Dollar.

Hillary, unfortunately I don't share your optimism on this. The fact of the matter is that the UK Government is taking on ludicrous levels of debt that we will be paying off for decades. We only recently finally paid the US back for loans after the depression following the Second World War so generations to come will be saddled with this new debt.

In the next 12-18 months more household names will go to the wall, unemployment will soar to possibly 3 million, house repossessions will be rampant and there will be an escalation in crime. Cue rioting and civil unrest over the whole sorry mess.