Sir Josiah Stamp, one-time president of the Bank of England, affirmed as long ago as 1927, that "the modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented . . . Bankers own the earth. If you want to be slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your slavery, then let the bankers continue to create money and control credit."

The Prime Minister has promised that the UK will continue to take whatever action is necessary to maintain economic stability. How can he? He has control of only 3% of the country's cash issue. Some 97% of the government's expenditure is borrowed from the private banking system at interest. Not alone has the private banking system's monopolistic control of Britain's finances led to irredeemable government debt but has fuelled an explosion of individual debt by reckless lending so that credit, created out of nothing, becomes impossible to repay.

Like the Great Depression of 1929, the present crisis is entirely banker-induced and has nothing to do with cyclical commercial or trading conditions. Bankers' debts are mere entries in ledgers without penalty to the usurers: the debts of the millions of victims of the banker-contrived crisis result in bankruptcy, poverty and misery. The link between money-making and value-creation becomes ever more tenuous. It is estimated that every day up to $42m change hands in the world's foreign exchange markets, of which only 2% is related to actual goods and services.

Money is a man-made creation, it ought, therefore, to be the servant of man and his progress towards an ever higher social aspiration. The banking system has made money the master of mankind and its banker-led monopolistic control must lead to utter degeneration of society. How can it be otherwise when, under a process called fractional reserve, banks issue credit in excess of 10 times the amount of deposits they hold, thereby creating further debts from non-existent deposits. It can only be defined as a swindle of gigantic proportions. The Prime Minister and Chancellor are therefore seen as helpless puppets in the hands of the corrupt banking system.

M M Henderson, 1 Endrick Gardens, Balfron, Stirlingshire. Alf Young points out that all these billions of pounds and dollars being fed into the money markets by the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve are taxpayers' money. Not having any money of its own, the state prints new money and lends it to the banks. The effect is to dilute the money stock and stoke up inflation - that's how we pay for it. Today, these same authorities ask us to believe inflation is at 2% - it's at least 7% and rising in the real world.

In the good times, banks make fortunes from lending credit - big bonuses and salaries all round. When reality kicks in everyone else has to pick up the tag. The system needs a root-and-branch review.

R F Morrison, 29 Colquhoun Street, Helensburgh. Three cheers for Alf Young's column about bankers and their funny old world. I thought I was the only one to find it bizarre that government money should shore them up in the US and that in the UK the heads of the very institutions that had brought about the current chaos should now go to the Bank of England asking for help.

John Ramster, 3 Woodside Avenue, Bridge of Weir.