Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling's announcement to inject £500 billion pounds into the British banking system has been praised as going "straight to the heart of the problem... with stunning speed" by Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Brown's announcement to inject £50 billion pounds cash from the Treasury into the worst affected banks, effectively part-nationalising three of the high street's biggest banks, with another £250 billion in bank debt guarantee and £200 billion in Bank of England short-term loans to encourage banks to begin lending to one another again .

Not only this, but Brown has been leading the way with European talks, and the major economies of Europe are prepared to follow Britain's lead, injecting hundreds of billions of pounds into banks while guaranteeing their debts. Mr Paulson, Treasurey Secretary in the US, is now also following lead.

Mr Krugman's article in the New York Times on the 12th October came just two days before the announcement that he has won the Nobel Prize for Economics. He praises Brown and his government for being "willing to think clearly about the financial crisis, and act quickly on its conclusions". He adds that "this combination of clarity and decisiveness hasn't been matched by any other Western government".  He finishes his article with this: "Luckily for the world economy however, Gordon Brown and his officials are making sense".

The money has, of course, come with conditions attached including axing bonuses for the bank's boardman and top directors. And although the banks themselves are yet to see a rise in their share values, the overall effect on the market has been very positive, with the FTSE 100 closing higher on both on the 13th and 14th October. Brown is man that you want to be leading the country when the pressure is on, and his financial experience and expertise is paying off globally.

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