Your comments above about taxpayer money going towards buying bank stock are timely Donuel, but the US govt isn't saying much about what it's going to do with its huge rescue package.

since then, Washington Mutual has just crashed after its customers withdrew billions of dollars worth of deposits in recent weeks. it's going to be a very rough ride, and Australia will be bumping along behind, as our economy is affected by ripples from the US. Our govt has just decided to invest in residential mortgages, as many of our lenders here are finding it harder to get money to loan.

the british govt has announced it's going to draw up legislation to strengthen the supervision of the banking system, make it easier to intervene if a bank gets into trouble and give more powers to government regulators.

regulation seems to be the word here in Oz and in the UK. i don't know if it's being recommended in america.

freda