From Mr Rolf Englund.

Sir, Former US Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers and Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, recently felt like "chastened prophets of doom". Both, together with most respected economists, have long warned about the risks associated with large US current account deficits.

In the end they will be right. But, as Keynes remarked: "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent." Perhaps that could be restated as: "The market can stay irrational longer than economists can stay credible."

So, what is new in this new era that will end in tears? We might no longer be in the economics textbooks' market economy but in an economy much more influenced by the stock market, the currency market, the credit market and the real estate market, an economy that might be called a markets economy.

Rolf Englund,

Director, IntCom,

Stockholm, Sweden