It was like that dream scene in The Fugitive where the hero is chased by the one-armed man.

And he can't escape, and the dream never ends. So it was for me. No matter how I tossed and turned and tried to wake up, the Chancellor kept coming.

Finally, I realised what it was he wanted. I was holding my home in my hands, and he was determined to have it. I ran as hard as I could but I knew with his long legs I could never outrun him.

Nuts, eh? Yet in the US this is precisely what has happened.

The government now effectively owns half of all mortgages. The seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is the equivalent of the Treasury snatching the HBOS Group, Nationwide, Abbey and Lloyds TSB on top of the Rock.

Naturally we all rejoice that the US authorities have stepped in, because otherwise these two mortgage giants would have imploded. (Cue scenes of The Grapes Of Wrath with families kicked out of homes and wandering starving through deserts.)

But I find it truly staggering that a great nation like the States that can make men walk on the moon can't run a mortgage market better than a whelk stall.

I mean, it's not as though we haven't been here before. Indeed, if US bankers controlled science, we'd all be locked in a constant loop of the opening scenes of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the ape throws the bone high into the air, and never progresses any further.

While not wishing to give nightmares to readers closer to home, America is a year ahead of us along this road to hell, and things are not looking good this side of the pond.

Unemployment is rising, house prices falling and both the Government and the Bank of England are like rabbits caught in headlights, unable to move.

It is highly unlikely that the UK Government will have to step in and rescue any other banks here, but it can't be ruled out. That possibility alone should be enough to keep you awake at night.

It absolutely terrifies me, not least for putting unprecedented power and control into absolutely the wrong hands. Look at the mess the Government made of pensions when it got its hands on them.

If anyone thinks it would do a better job running your mortgage, just take a look at how borrowers at the nationalised Northern Rock are faring one year after its collapse.

Many, encouraged to take on debts worth 125% of the value of their properties, are now stranded on a standard variable rate 25% higher than the best of the rest of the industry, with little scope for switching to good value fixed and discounted deals which would be even cheaper.

As prices fall, these poor suckers could find themselves suffering 50% negative equity.

Which makes me wonder, where is the Financial Services Authority in all this? Isn't it responsible for implementing "treating customer fairly" rules? Funny that now the Government is in charge, repossessing Rock borrowers like there is no tomorrow, the TFC rules, as they are affectionately known in the business, have been thrown out the window.

So you start to get my point? Then think about how they could rig house prices by manipulating interest rates, and the impact that could have on all kind of career and lifetime decisions. Actually, better still, don't think about it.

No, we don't want Government interfering with our mortgages. So on balance, I'm with the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, when he warns against the dangers of Government underwriting our home loans.

What we want from Government is an orderly market based on sound regulation, and on that front politicians failed us spectacularly and overwhelmingly, just as bankers failed us and regulators failed us.

They stood by and did absolutely nothing to control the excesses of irresponsible lenders, despite repeated warnings that the housing market boom would end in calamity.

But they could choose not to fail us now by cutting interest rates. These are not trifling matters. Plenty of historians put the cause of the Second Wold War and the Holocaust down not to the Treaty of Versailles and ingrained European anti-semitism, but to the Depression.

This alone gave rise to Hitler and provided him with a willing audience for his message of hatred against the Jewish bankers.

So next time the MPC meets, maybe it should keep the thought of the Nazis marching across Europe in its mind and reflect on the awesome responsibility which lies in its hands.