“Lack of understanding of the credit crunch is magnifying its damage,” you lament (“The Spiral of Ignorance,” February 21, 2009). “Britain is swimming naked: almost nobody appears to know what he is talking about,” you continue. “The public is scared and uncertain; the politicians are panicky and confused.” All in all, “a layman might conclude that there is almost no-one in Britain capable of comprehending the financial mess, and at the same time sufficiently uncontaminated by the mistakes and ruses that caused it to be entrusted with the job of fixing it.” For this you blame “low levels of financial literacy” in the country. The intellectual background of Members of Parliament, “few of whom have much training in economics and commerce,” only contributes to the quagmire. But just imagine how much worse it is in other countries, for Britain is a long-acknowledged leader in things financial. The spiral of ignorance keeps spiraling across the globe, where even fewer people have sufficient levels of financial literacy to understand the credit crunch and its recessionary consequences. Panic stations, panic stations!