The Spectator’s Notes | 11 October 2008

We all know that everything about money comes down to confidence, but normally, because we have that confidence, we do not think about what this means. Now we must. We have learnt that mighty banks are nothing if customers — and other banks — have no confidence in their assets. Panicked, we turn to governments. Only governments, we believe, can ultimately overcome monetary crises, because only they have control of the printing press. If they ‘stand behind’ our banks, our confidence can be restored. That is why Gordon Brown acted as he did on Wednesday morning. But is this necessarily so? In all the amazing scenes of recent weeks, I found that the most alarming has been the picture of Mr Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Silvio Berlusconi at the weekend, gathered in front of the Elysée Palace to offer a ‘rescue plan’. This was not just because at least three of the four (I am not sure about Mrs Merkel) are discreditable, untruthful people.