This idea was invented by Sweden in the early 1990's.Hence its not original.

The result to date is the Tax payer in Sweden is still losing out.

C.Frank, London, England

"That means more interest rate cuts, but, perhaps more importantly, the mother of all fiscal stimuli. "

Ho ho, fix one vast collapsing easy-credit-induced-bubble by repeating, yet again, the very actions that caused the bubble to inflate in the first place.

Alan Greenspan would be proud of you!

James Brooks, Singapore,

LOLOLOL! thanks for the joke of the day Gerry!

Adam Smith, Shanghai,

Inflation goes to 5.2 and the Pound is losing value at an alarming rate and you suggest tax cuts and lower interest rates? My god! We better get some Euros and Dollars before our hard earned pounds get valued as much as toilet paper!

Ivan Bukov, Newcastle,

Commercial banks in the UK used to be restricted to 12-times leverage - some now have 30-time, even 60-times leverage - the limits were removed in 2004 - Chancellor at the time that ever so Prudent Mr Brown - so don't tell me he doesn't share some of the blame for the folly of the last 10 years.

Huw Sayer, London, England

Explain to me again why it would be unfair to pour lavish praise on the Irish Government for coming up with the idea first?

Andy, Cork,

Credit where it's due - in September, Royal London Asset Management's chief investment officer, Robert Talbut, said we needed a rescue plan based on bank recapitalisation and a cut in rates - It only took Gordon Brown six weeks to pretend it was his idea.

Huw Sayer, London, England

Double national debt, and decrease taxes? Fiscal illiteracty.
Is this where GB gets his ideas?
Real taxation (hidden and direct) in UK is already at near unsustainable levels circa 60% - tax cuts are needed but doubling national debt sort of renders that impractical neh?

Thos, Aberdeen, Scotland

The Republicans threw out the first Bush plan THREE WEEKS BEFORE Brown came up with the idea for the UK, when they would not bail out the banks without equity in exchange

Had Brown not sold our gold reserves at the bottom of the market, he would not have to hit taxpayers for the bail out money

jIM lAFLIN, Bicknoller,

Don't be fooled.
Gordon Brown's view is that there is no price too high for the British Taxpayer to meet in order to save his premiership from being the unmittigated distaster that it actually is.

Steve Douglas, Wimborne, U.K.

U.K. bank rate 4.5%, inflation 5.2%......Why should savers receive less return than inflation? Like other "experts", G.B. you forget that it is savers that underpin the banks and government lendings.

Robert, North Wales,

Surely Thatcher must take the blame for most of the problems. She deregulated the markets, encouraged greed amoung bankers and created the culture where everybody must own a home even if it means borrowing more then is sensible. While Brown did nothing to stop this excess it was not his creation.

Frank, Aberdeen, uk

Now that not only British financial systems look like those of China, British's columnist looks like that of China too - I am surprised to read this bold flattering as a guy coming from China - it just looks so familiar. :-)

Well, as long as it works now and for the long term, I am fine with it.

Zhong, London, UK

I'm not a fan of Gerard Baker or Gordon Brown, but I commend the first for his honesty and hope the second has done something right for a change.

The current crisis is a game-changer and Cameron/Osborne's recent criticism is as ill-judged as Heffer's ludicrous DT rants.

Chris Smith, chesterfield, uk

The Global Recession, like the War of Lies, originated in the U.S. and the solution will have to emerge from the U.S. It really is silly to heap praise on anyone at this moment, it's far too early, proof of pudding, etc, etc.

joe reilly, spalding, England

The Global Recession, like the War of Lies, originated in the U.S. and the solution will have to emerge from the U.S. It really is silly to heap praise on anyone at this moment, it's far too early, proof of pudding, etc, etc.

joe reilly, spalding, England

I concur absolutely with Niall Orr,Sydney,Australia but
then most of the scribblers in the UK press do not have a clue.Thank goodnes there is one person in the press with the knowledge/expertise willing to tell the truth.
Some people disagree with GB article but they are biased in the extreme!

Dennis Daly, London, England

Paris Hilton makes more sense than Gordon Brown She asks why interest aren't reduced so that people can afford to pay their mortgages. Out of the mouths of babes?

oldandbold, lincoln, england

Gordon Brown reminds of a murderer revisiting the scene of his crimes and inveigling himself into the investigation with helpful hints and smiling for the camera. He is still guilty of the crime of getting us into this mess.

Janet Brown, manchester, england

Gordon is leaving some of us wallowing in distress. When I left for Japan, I had to move my savings to offshore banks. Although I am British, the UK government does not allow me to have a bank account in the UK. Kaupthing (Isle of Man) went bust last week, taking my savings with them.

Steen Wallis, Maebashi, Japan

This is a wind up eh? You are having a larf! GB may be the toast of the world, but the rest of the world doesn't vote for him. Come the election he will be toast!

sophie smith, london, uk

The banks are critically short of capital, and Baker thinks interest rates should be CUT!

You couldn't make it up ... welcome to the Age of Financial Illiteracy.

Martin Clarke, Leicester, UK

as the useless architect of the financial mess ( devolving responsilbility for control of the money supply to 2 different bodies,
encouraging everyone to spend on credit , this raises VAT to new levels which can then be wasted on public NON-SERVICES.

whelan, skye, scotland

In summary Mr Baker, you are saying "God it's getting cold out here - let's throw more kerosene on our house fire to keep warm for a few more months - perhaps when spring comes all will be well, if we hope it is so."

Huw Sayer, London, England

I am sorry but you dont understand the situation. I have argued in this slot for quite some time. The banks needed a good old fashioned rights issue. It was so obvious. Paulson has tryed to avoid it to avoid dilution of shareholders. He now has no choice. Just basic corporate finance.

G Davies, Cardiff, Wales

Part of the problem has been the absurdity of banks lending up to 8 times annual income to finance house purchases. It will be unpleasant for many but house prices have to fall and then there should be a return to lending up to a maximum of 3 times income as it used to be.

john, Kouvola, Finland

The culture of unsustainable debt and unrestricted spending is entirely down to Brown. He deserves no credit at all. This mess is all his fault. If the Bank of England had not been restricted by Brown to only considering inflation then we would not have had such a credit bubble form. He is to blame!

Peter Farrington, Maidstone,

Get real - you don't have to support Gordon to support the plan - I doubt he had the imagination to come up with it (think we can attribute the idea to the Swedes, Warren Buffett and Mervyn King) - and let's not forget that Gordon's policies helped get us into this mess - so don't be so fawning!

Huw Sayer, London, England

I suppose Brown and Darling must get something right occasionally. But there are still many unanswered questions about how, under their leadership and with all the financial experts, advisors, regulators etc. at their disposal, we were allowed to get into such a state in the first place.

Chris K, Cheltenham, UK

I really think Gordon Brown showed a great understanding of the problems and determined leadership. In contrast the Paulson/Bush partnership really did look and sound out of their depth, though by following Gordons Plan it may flatter them in History. Who will come up with the recession 'fix'?

Billy, Bangkok, Thailand

Why don't we just abolish interest completely, all they do is make peoples lives unconfortable. Yes, governments should just give us the cash and we''ll stimulate the economy for them.
Alas, this how we got here in the first place so where do you think the next bubble will take us?

Stephen Hargreaves, Hobart , Australia

Sir: Yes: "The first, most pressing task is to get the financial system back to some sort of normality. " However, normality in the banking system hasn't existed for at least a decade and a half. Normality = far lower prices for stocks. The 401k experiment has failed.

Peter Adam, Chevy Chase MD, USA

Extremely well said - people must get behind Brown, not criticise and blame him. He is striving to restore confidence, no one else is able to suggest an alternative approach to revive the financial system - yet they continue slam his plan

Niall Orr, Sydney, Australia