good thing that you Brits are docile, disarmed, and under surveillance 24hrs a day.

If this situation continues until there is "blood in the streets", Main street USA might resemble a post-armegeddon deathscape as the rich ...who doomed us all... board their planes and fly off into the sunset.

David, Houston, Texas

The economy has been fueled by the credit card, and now its payback time. Interesting how Tony Blair left just before the 0% deal came to an end.

Jessica Gardner, Haverfordwest, Wales

The innocent, the thrifty and the wise will pay for the excesses of the irresponsible spenders.
It appears that in the story so far, the grasshopper has it all, while the ant keeps on working and saving for the winter! Well done capitalism!

P Davis, manchester,

All I need is a pint a day.

Robert, Denver, USA

DONT PANIC!

No one gets out of life alive:)

Whats important is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ his Son.

G Gibson, Sydney, Australia

The west and Br.Brown have built their reputations on credit but credit means just that and one day you have to repay the money now is that day and the chickens have all come home to roust.

stuart walker, Blackpool,

When will we see some signs of action against the financial experts, bankers, etc. whose greed and irresponsibility created this situation, rather than treating the whole thing as some kind of unpredictable, unforeseeable Act of God?

Chris K, Cheltenham, UK

<B>"When do the governments become insolvent?</B>

Yesterday...LOL

Seriously though; they become insolvent when no one is willing to issue them any more credit.

At that point, an individual surrenders to bankruptcy. But a government will start printing money and it only gets worse from that point.

John Brown, Denver, USA

I echo the question - When do governments become insolvent? Does anyone know the answer??

Rachel Kent, Toronto,

When we come out of this, itcould be a good time to join the Euro, as we will all be at the same point in the economic cycle, i.e. broke, and loans will be properly controlled and borrowing limits will include debt on credit and charge cards as well as on property.

Rita, Mulhouse, France

All this easy credit is about to close down the entire financial system; prepare for a complete breakdown of law and order globally as people are litteraly starved of credit ansd worse still food, this is likely to get very very ugly indeed; best grow some veg in the garden and convert cash to gold!

Stuart, Bangkok,

Dont you just love a crisis? We brits normally have to make do with moaning about the weather; this is so much more fun. Every day there is some new horror story, and the best bit is that this will continue for the next 12 months at least!

Andrew Piercy, London, UK

When do the governments become insolvent?

James Ribe, Los Angeles, USA

The snowball is growing bigger and the cliff is approaching....
Didn't you guys ever watch cartoons?

Kerry, Orange, Texas

NEVER ever try and mess with the markets you (government) are doomed to failure. History proves that. You put in place uncontrollable regulation and forgot to control the regulators -the fraudsters got you as they always will. The only sizable good to come of this is that the EU is finished.

Victor M, Cricklewood,

Let capitalism do what it does; weak financial institutions should be allowed to go to the wall. Better managed businesses will pick up the wrecks and make them work again. Pumping in billions of taxpayers money only keeps the badly managed businesses going for longer and will make things much worse

Jon Burgess, Douglas, Isle of Man

What will happen when the companies involved in all those PFI initiatives, at present, off balance sheet, can't get loans to continue, and the government has to bail them out and bring them within public spending.
Pandoras box, is being prised open before our eyes.

dudley holley, Thorpe Bay, UK

A well designed FRAUD that has the world reeling CEO got away with &500million.accordin to ABC news. Abig job for the FBI Fraud Squad

C Smith, Burlington, Canada

This whole discussion is nonsense. The truth is 100 % banking guarantees are a confidence trick and are simply not possible. No industrialised country in the world has the capital to provide such a thing in real life should the very worst happen and the whole banking system fail.

John Lewis, Cardiff, UK

Unfortuately we are sitting all in the same boat. Guess nobody will be left out.

Susy, Muenchen,

This is getting more and more like the runup to the great depression, when economic nationalism triggered by smoot-hawley and responded to by most world powers.

Governments are getting panicky and its leading to very dangerous attitudes and decisions.

Neil Murphy, cromer,

Implicit means probably, possibly or maybe BUT explicit means will be. We're sick of Brown 'implicit' statements as he has reneged on them too many times. Brown must Explicitly guarantee all savings if he is to stop a run on UK banks with savers moving their money to safe havens like Ireland.

Mike, alicante, spain

Governments are not suitable or appropriate institutions to address problems of this nature on the fly. If there is not already a thoroughly well-conceived plan for dealing with such contingencies that can simply be executed by officials, government intermeddling stands only to make things worse.

James E. Petts, Burnham, England

Would the money be better spend in drilling for oil & gas of the west coast of England, Wales 7 Scotland of which holds billions of pounds worth of oil & gas that we could export?

bill, Liverpool, England

A government, any government, guaranteeing the total liabilities in its banking system, would be on all fours with this old pensioner offering to guarantee the British national debt. A nice gesture, but not one that the public should place any faith in.

Ken Harvey, Ramsgate, South Africa

Just like in a divorce or bankruptcy, the problems which have built up over years have to be solved in the same timeframe. They can't be solved quickly because they weren't created quickly.

Not billions but trillions are needed, along with a change in mentality and lifestyle and thinking!

iain, bedford, uk

All of this disjointed European approach after the "great leader" himself had sat down with them to iron out a consistent strategy. It only goes to show that the dream of a harmonised Europe is a myth, that self-interest prevails and that Gordon Brown's opinion is as valued over there as it is here.

Jim Swift, Glasgow, UK

I agree with Mr Fieldman - many billions went into a black hole. Bank directors deliberately and maliciously hid many assets off-balance sheet to avoid regulatory requirements. When will the FSA decide that they are not "fit and proper" to conduct investment business ?

dome, London,

I trust that any guarantees provided are not a subsidy but the provision of short-term working capital.

I trust that the banks and their shareholders will pay reasonable interest on any Govt money.

I trust that leadership issues will be addressed, just as they are being at the Met.

Rhys Jaggar, Leeds, UK

Spot on Peter Fieldman. The banks need to come clean with the numbers. The valuations should be as of two dates - say Jan 1st 2008 and now. That would enable us all to judge where the banks should be vs where they really are and make our decisions accordingly.

Matthew, Bucks, UK

Britain will follow Germany by close of play tonight-sure as eggs is eggs. What will be more intereseting is to listen carefully to Alaistar Darling's justification for the delay.

William Grierson, Kimpton, UK

Why not make the guarantee explicit and not just implicit? After all, retail depositors are nearly all taxpayers - and the higher the deposit, the higher the tax paid tends to be. A guarantee is, in effect, simply a community insurance policy sharing out the pain so that nobody is hit too badly.

Michael Boon, Farnham, Surrey

Confidence will return with stability. Stability will come when the financial sector comes clean with the numbers.
We are not being told how many billions went into a black hole. Banks have a board, non exec directors, accountants, auditors, legal depts. Make them disclose the true facts or get out

peterfieldman, paris, france

Self responsibility begins with the recognition that I am ultimately responsible for my own existence and that no one else is here on earth to serve me, says psychologist Nathaniel Branden. Why did the sheeple admit or accept, without further inquiry, the fraud of fractional-reserve banking?

Ivo Cerckel, Siquijor, Philippines

The dead hand says that something major is about to break if the Germans are covering deposits. Watch $ and £ Libor on Monday.

James Black, Sidbury, UK

Only 1 more £Trillion to Go/ be revealed !

paul, Manchester, UK