At the G-20 Summit, world leaders seem to have agreed that money needs to be pumped into the global economy through both monetary and fiscal policies – basically interest rate cuts and tax cuts together.

So far, so good. Although the long-term consequences of these measures is unhealthy, there is no denying that the current crisis demands an adrenaline shot of cold, hard cash into the sickly patient to stop it going into cardiac arrest.

Yet the politicians are still fairly clueless.

Desperate to be seen be doing something – anything – they are paying more attention than they ought to some suggestions that could actually make the situation worse.

1   Protectionism: this is the worst idea of all. The consequences of the 1929 Crash were prolonged by the best part of a decade by the tariff walls that went up as a panic response.

2   Bailing Out the Big Three: if the USA bails out its moribund automobile giants, why not bail out other failing businesses? To do so simply rewards bad management at the expense of properly managed competitors.

3   Full Nationalisation of the Banks: state-owned banks will find it increasingly difficult to reconcile the political pressure to lend freely and to minimise foreclosing with the commercial imperative to reduce marginal lending and to be aggressive in pursuit of bad debt.

4   Massive Public Works Programmes: politicians love them because they are highly visible, but public investment in projects that are not otherwise viable means higher deficits and taxes, and therefore less to invest in private businesses that might be viable.

5   Soft Loans to Small Business: this suggestion is a would-be populist response to public outrage at the big banks being bailed out. However, it is a classic case of two wrongs not making a right. As with all state funded schemes, the reality is that money would go to those with friends in government, or those who are best at filling out forms, not to the most viable or the most deserving.