Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer over here in the UK, has stated that the current difficulties are the worst since WW2.

There are rumblings that the Bank of England is about to start underwriting some new mortgage lending to try and arrest the rapid decline in house prices and try and rescue Brown's Premiership (down 10% since last summer and no where near a bottom yet).

The impression I get is that they are preparing us for "extra-ordinary measures" of some kind and I fear they are desperate enough to do just about anything right now. All highly inflationary and hence positive for gold.