I AGREE with columnist Peter Mullen that US President Barack Obama is all talk and no do (Echo, Jan 19).

However, he is wrong to criticise President Obama for printing record amounts of new money. The UK government has done exactly the same, and quite right.

Given that firms and households have cut their spending and are saving as never before (or “deleveraging” if you want jargon), governments have to print and distribute that which people want to save – ie, money.

If governments don’t, then the above saving – or “non-spending”

– just exacerbates unemployment.

Of course, there are inflationary risks in money printing, but any government with its head screwed on ought to be able to rein in this additional money (or clamp down on demand in other ways) if inflation looms.

But the problem is that governments do not have their heads screwed on all that tightly.

For example, in both countries much of the new money has been dished out to banks rather than households. And the banks are just sitting on it.

Both the US and UK governments are blundering their way in approximately the right direction, but there is room for improvement – to put it politely.

Ralph Musgrave, Durham.