Financial crisis: someone will have to get us out of all this debt

Yesterday, the Government announced that it would find up to £50 billion to shore up the capital of Britain's biggest banks. This will be financed from borrowing, rather than tax increases or spending cuts. So, unless the Office for National Statistics allows the Treasury to treat the shares that it will be buying as a liquid asset (such as foreign exchange reserves), this will increase the official measure of public sector debt.