THE banks used to be bastions of competence and financial rectitude, but I’m amazed by the number of ingenious ways they have found to lose money and then to recoup their losses. Did they learn from their mistakes in the last property crash? No. Despite Barings and Nick Leeson, they introduced a dangerous performance culture and turned a blind eye to reckless lending and dodgy deals. Will they learn now?

Probably not. In fact, as you reported in your extensive coverage, they are starting to recoup their losses by overcharging their customers again, as if it were they who had caused the crisis.

If the world’s banks are bailed out without stringent safeguards for customer and taxpayer alike they will soon be back to their old tricks. We need a new international system of regulation. Martin Coath Sevenoaks, Kent

Double standards Just how dichotomous are the mutterings of Gordon Brown? On October 4, at an EU meeting to establish a £12 billion fund to support small companies, he cited this as a move to “show how we can do more in Britain to help small businesses through what is a difficult economic time”. In his last budget, in March 2007, he increased corporation tax for small businesses progressively from 19p to 22p in 2009. Edward Clifford Ammanford, Carmarthenshire

Division of labour You talk of unemployment rising by 1m on the one hand and a chronic shortage of labour in the farming sector on the other. Have we become too fussy about the kind of work we will do? Katie Church Reading, Berkshire

Filthy lucre Last week you reviewed an £850,000 car and ran a Style outdoor clothing feature with one outfit costing £4,989. Is this not irrelevant and obscene? Robert Bagg London E4

Choice language Looking at the mess of the global economy and the actions taken by our leaders, I am reminded of something Quentin Crisp once said: “Politics is the art of making the inevitable appear to be the matter of wise human choice.” Frank West Uxbridge, west London

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