Byline: Sion Barry
IF a week is a long time in politics, then in the financial markets it must seem like a lifetime.
Monday will rank as one of the most momentous in the history of the financial services sector, with the part nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley in the UK; a series of European bank bail-outs; more central bank liquidity injections and then to top it all the US House of Representatives voting down the EUR700bn troubled asset relief programme (Tarp).
However, while politicians in the US are rightly angered at the prospect of having to bail out irresponsible banks who created the current crisis in the first place, they really have to look at the wider global picture to see that inaction could have hugely negative implications for the global economy.
All is surely not lost on the rescue plan front - which …