For the first time in as long as I can remember, I find myself on George W. Bush's side. It's rather lonely. The US President has been wrong about so much during his eight years in office that it is tempting to dismiss his warnings of the impending financial apocalypse as yet more hyperbole - the boy crying wolf.

Unfortunately, this time I suspect he's right. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's bail-out is far from perfect, but without it the American and British economies face a crunch the likes of which we can hardly imagine. But how much money would you put on the likelihood of the lamest of lame-duck presidents driving the plan into law?

Not much, if the chaotic negotiations in the White House on Thursday night are anything to go by. As the $700 billion plan to prevent the world's biggest economy slumping into the worst …