Gordon Brown has the economy as his "sole focus," does he? Then he should just take over from Alastair Darling as Chancellor.

Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America and the run on Northern Rock in the UK, uncertainty has now hit Japan.

In the last 7 days the famous Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and the Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches.

Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song. Today shares in Kamikaze Bank was suspended after they nose-dived and 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop.

Analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that customers may get a raw deal.

Note: This is a joke. Just in case you hadn't realised yet.

indexed.

The minimum wage. It's all well and good.

But raising it to £5.73 just when economic turmoil is predicted to about to strike is an exercise in sheer stupidity.

The a higher minimum wage will mean that those in work get paid a little bit more. But it doesn't help those not in work get a job. In fact, the very opposite. After all, if your current workforce is costing you more without any increase in output or efficiency, you're hardly going to increase it.

Raising the minimum wage won't do what the Unison general secretary wants and "protect the poor from the constant price rises in essentials like fuel, food and housing" but the very opposite [yet again], and drive those very same people into problems with paying for essentials such as fuel and food. After all, who produces these things? Yes, those working on [or close to] minimum wage. And if the cost of their labour goes up, so will the price of their product.

So no benefits will be achieved from this raise, bar fewer recruitments and maybe some redundancies.

They wanted one a while ago. Now they may well have one, with the nationalisation of Northern Rock.

But this Clause 4 is the other kind of "moment". The death knell for any claims they may have of economic competence. A Clause 4 in reverse.

They are in fact now changing the Clause 4 back to the old one, in practice if not in words.

From the meaningless:

Back to the unworkable:

After all, he's spent the last decade trying to make his name on economic competence as Chancellor, yet Tony Blair is the one getting all the high-paid business jobs in the financial sector!

And to add insult to injury, according to the Telegraph "[v]oters pin [their] financial hopes on David Cameron".

Gordon Brown really must be feeling sick.

Yet another blow for Brown:

Even though the Telegraph poll which gave the Conservatives a seven point lead over Labour still gives the Brown-Darling combo an eleven point lead over Cameron-Osborne partnership on the economy, this is a big drop from an earlier - though not directly comparable - poll result.

These now former Labour donors think that Brown is leading the country into an economic crisis. If he does, that will kill him in the country. He bases his entire reputation on the apparent stability of the economy over the last decade. We will soon see whether this was simply despite, rather than because of, him.

Source: The Times

Gordo's done a runner. Unlike with every other big news item that has arisen since he became Prime Minister, he has yet to take the lead - or even comment on it. Really, you would have though that he would have, considering the the economy should be his forte, having spent the last decade attempting to micro-manage it.

When there was a security alert in London, he took centre stage in front of the cameras. When there was flooding, he did the same. When foot-and-mouth came back, he came back early from his holiday. But since Northern Rock hit the headlines, we've seen neither hide nor hair of him. And yet this is the area in which until just a couple of months ago had controlled for a decade before taking the step up to the premiership. This should be his chance to shine. But instead he's vanished.

He's the Prime Minister. His Macavity act is no longer a good thing - or, really, acceptable - for him to do. He should be out there reassuring the public, not leaving it to Alastair Darling to attempt to do so alone.

Wherefore art thou, Macavity?

UPDATE: Macavity has finally deigned to speak.