Lloyds is being kept afloat with £165 billion of loans and guarantees from the Bank of England and other central banks around the world.

The recent bail out of RBS to the tune of £25.5 bn went barely noticed. Last year it would have been massive news. There was additional QE, of £25, announced that "covered" that news and QE is not seen as government debt. However like a share split QE dilutes the national wealth. We, as the nation, seem to have got used to sinking into ever more massive debt. Pytel’s predictions appear to materialise. Although we all, I guess, wish that he is wrong. (Note the comment of Stephen Herring, Senior Tax Partner at BDO, below the article.)

Jason Strong wakes up at 7am every morning in his Taylor Wimpey home, swinging his legs out of bed on to his Carpetright carpet. His wife Jill is already showering in their Twyfords bathroom suite.

Depressing and weird to be watching such economic suicide by Labour. The media are not parroting the return to growth line, just the reality that the UK is going to be a really bleak place to live and work for the next decade or more. New Labour won't even manage to drag things out to the election.

Some choice quotes from this article: "With hindsight, it is clear that hubris and stupidity by senior British bankers played an important role in the current crisis." "A bigger issue is that banker greed and hubris will stunt UK growth for a generation. Bankers destroyed millions of retirement nest-eggs and will cause taxes to rise as well. These are high prices for the population to pay." "The sense of entitlement communicated by the Lloyds action defines the problem that the UK public still faces."

Five banks failed late Friday, bringing the 2009 tally to 120. The biggest to fall was United Commercial Bank of San Francisco, which had 63 U.S. branches as well as operations in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The bank held deposits totaling $7.5 billion.

Largarde on the French approach to the crisis. Makes more sense to me than ours.

ok. So we have the following: 1. Might not be the top [but probably is] 2. Stay safe - stay in "cash" 3. Not at the "V" bottom yet 4. Make sure you are in "safe" institutions. 5. Markets are paradoxical - "sneaky" markets. 6. "Super" bullish on the dollar. My interpretation of what he says [i would underline what he says if i knew how to do it!] 1. Sell all longs - dont lose a fortune waiting for the last penny of the up move. 2. Only short futures and/or write puts / buy calls if you are willing to take a risk, and understand the riks involved. 3. Possibly buy some greenbacks - or trade the Dollar index or individual crosses. 4. Get out of commodities - oil in particular is toppy.

Yes yes she is a chartist... infact she wrote the main text book on the icky moko thingy cloud (as opposed to cloud computing). Some of you may find this of interest some not. If not then ..... dont read it! [and you thought i was going to apologise]. Will also put in one of Bob Ps interview [November 4th] on another post. Why am i posting now? Well personally i think its a high probability that we have had the high - since the March lows. If not then a break of the high will give us the final suck in. Natural FTSE support around the 5k level, so this so far is a bounce..... I wont bore you with my specific areas to look for nor my positions.

Now that is how to run a business. BA are losing £1.6 million pounds a day!!!! Mr Walsh, as I understand, has a basic salary in teh region of £750,000 and apparently is sh@t at his job. I mean, if my company lost twice my salary every day would I still be in a job?