While the stock market indices are floundering with multi-year lows, “nationalization” was the key word spooking investor sentiment during the past few days.

Also on the video front, “hot-under-the-collar” discussions, featuring James Galbraith, Sheila Bair, Marc Gaber, Nouriel Roubini, Nassim Taleb and Richard Bove, took place on whether or not to nationalize large US banks.

David Reilly (Bloomberg) added the following perspective: “The nationalization debate is a smoke screen. We’ve already nationalized the big banks. Let’s just accept it and move on”. From across the pond, David Fuller said: “Politically … this is a case of [even more] damned if you do [than] damned if you don’t.”

In lighter vein, this week’s compilation

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Yen trades to 98!  Carry Trades unwinding hurt high yielders...  Gold rallies back to $900!  Central Bank rate cuts.... And Now... Today's Pfennig!

If our report of earlier in the week wasn’t bad enough about the British economy, more figures have come to light that suggest it’s almost in free fall, so rapid is the downturn. It’s a slump that is being repeated in more and more of Europe. The Irish economy is moving closer to recession, and now economists say that Denmark, Portugal, Italy and Spain are hovering on the brink as the European Central Bank prepares to lift rates tonight (our time) by 0.25% to 4.25%. That rate decision could very well change the dynamics of markets here, in Europe, the US and Asia. A rate of 4.25% from the ECB, compared to 2% from the US fed, has the potential to cause more damage to the US dollar, drive commodity prices even higher, especially oil, and further boost inflation. Commodity prices moved up sharply overnight with oil above $US144 a barrel, copper hitting a ...

The UK housing sector, already best by plunging demand and prices, has been hit with a potential body blow which could tip the economy into a deep recession. Taylor Wimpey, the country’s biggest home owner, has shocked the UK market and observers with the news that it has failed to agree a deal with potential new investors, forcing the stricken house builder to admit on Wednesday that it could breach banking covenants if the housing market does not recover. Coming with the news of poor sales figures for big retailer, Marks & Spencer, the Taylor Wimpey news will undermine investor confidence across the board. The company had been looking for around 500 million pounds ($A1 billion) in new capital from existing big and new shareholders, and had promised to write down the value of its land bank in Britain, Spain and other countries by around 660 million pounds (around $A1.4 billion). The write-down ...