Bank of England governor Mervyn King has described the current financial crisis as the "most serious" the UK has seen for at least 80 years.

Speaking to Sky News after the Bank authorised the injection of a further £75bn into the economy through quantitative easing (QE), King said: "This is the most serious financial crisis we've seen at least since the 1930s, if not ever."

The Bank has already pumped £200bn into the economy.

Here is how this morning's national newspapers summarised yesterday's development:

The Telegraph

Printing more money won't work this time

Inflation, not deflation, is the problem for the UK - and the Bank of England will make it worse. Yesterday, the Bank announced that it intended to extend its "quantitative easing" (QE - ie money-printing) programme by a further £75bn, on top of the £200bn programme initiated in early 2009.

From autumn 2008, a number of us on the Shadow Monetary Policy Committee, which is run by the Institute for Economic Affairs, advocated QE. The goal at that time was to prevent the money stock collapsing following the 2008 banking crisis and the regulatory response to it, thus preventing deflation from getting out of control, driving up the burden of household debts and inducing mass defaulting, which would drag down the banking sector even further. READ MORE HERE...

The Guardian

QE is not part of Downing St's Plan A

Quantitative easing is printing money by another name and is the last resort of desperate governments when all other policies have failed. Not my words, but those of George Osborne in early 2009 when he was still only shadow chancellor.

David Cameron, the then leader of the opposition, was also highly sceptical about quantitative easing - a method of boosting growth pioneered during the great depression of the 1930s. Speaking to the Conservative party conference of 2009, he warned: "Sometime soon it will have to stop because in the end printing money leads to inflation." MORE...

The Independent

Osborne's obstinacy forces MPC's hand

Outlook The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has made the right decision, but it was interesting to note yesterday that the Governor felt it important to make it clear there had been no pressure from the Government for it to act. In terms of direct pressure, that is no doubt true, but the fiscal policy pursued by the Treasury has left the MPC with precious little choice but to intervene. MORE...