By Ricardo Caballero

We are running out of time. There is no end in sight unless much political capital is put at risk now. We have a superb team of economists and technicians, but their voices seem to have been lost.

I recall Lawrence Summers, chief White House economic adviser, rightly claiming that if markets over-react, the government has to over-react even more. US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, even in his much criticised first announcement, sounded like a man of the right principles: We must stabilise the financial system, regardless of cost, was the message delivered with clenched teeth. Read more