Wall Street should be Haulted until the day after the elections. Thank you for considerig this complex issue.

You have described the stock market crisis as a patient having a tumor removed. But the patient is clinically dead and undergoing an out-of-the-body experience. Αmerica is literally being forced into a socialist economy. The neo-cons did it. Here's why: Irving Kristol, the godfather of the neo-conservative movement was a disciple of Leon Trotsky. Stephen Schwartz speaks of Trotsky affectionately as 'the old man.' They say Paul Wolfowitz is the greatest Trotskyite of our times. Some of his associates call themselves Trotsky-cons.
It looks like they really meant it, doesn't it?.

The root of the problem seems to me that we have increased and increased our debt, and that much of what was borrowed was not spent wisely, neither by individuals (who bought bigger houses and bigger cars) nor by nations (who wasted on unwinnable wars). We must adjust our living style to our means, and implement laws that ensure we will keep living within our means. I think, that governments do more or less what they can right now, but I would think it is indeed too late. We're not capable of paying off our debts right now, and who wants to lend to a borrower who hasn't been able to handle previous loans?

The crisis, and the tightly coupled reactions of both "Let's try what we have always done before in 'similar' instances" and also the panic that is driving things into more instability, was clearly foreseen by a statistically significant cross-section of the population, from expert economists to mathematicians, to "commoners" (a large class of people that are still regarded as such by the "profiteers" and self-proclaimed "upper class" such as certain types that have thrived on Wall St. until recently).

Even more significantly, this was felt, intuited and forecast by many workers, homeowners, and especially women.

This was also forecast in the writings of many of the foundational leaders upon which al Qaeda has built itself. Simply go to the stacks, friends, and look at writings of bin Ladin and his teachers.

No one in government or banking or "high finance" wanted to listen, and I don't know what may be more abhorrent to certain Wall St. executives and Washington/Downing St. officials – the fact that al Qaeda predicted this type of behavior, or the fact that the problems, as well as realistic preventive measures, were foreseen by many ordinary people, workers, without MBAs or CFAs, and especially mothers and homemakers.

We need to develop Community and Local methods of Credit that do not depend exclusively upon the conventional banking system. We need Community-based Capitalism. Not "Communism" but Community-sustainining Capitalism that starts with individuals, families, neighborhoods and associations working together, with the benefit of the internet now, to develop alternative measures and means of valuation, trade, credit, and credit-worthiness.

"Fair Isaacs" (the maniacal credit rating system) is a big part of the problem as much as the subprime loans, but all pale in comparison to the contagion and plague of Greed that swept through our whole society.

Richard,

I agree with your analogy of a patient on cancer treatment. However, we are not talking tumor, but systemic cancer. That means, we don't know where the tumor is – it is everywhere and nowhere.

Maybe that means it is time for a paradigm shift. We need to introduce democratic elements into corporate governance. As an example, weights of vote should be capped to 5 per cent per share holder, no matter how big the share held in stocks. Stock options should become a thing of the past – decisions by managements should be strategical instead of ephemerous at best. Maybe such measures would not be sufficient, necessary they are.

What must be done, is what is should have been done a long time ago: install a non-profit finance system. That is today the solution also: nationalize all banks, fire all the bankers and give them a job at community services. I am sorry if that sounds rough, but just like if you leave the trash out for long enough, the job of clearing it out is not going to get any prettier. Once the banking system is resorting directly under government, the government will simply order a) to cook the books until they are fine, b) order the banking/money infrastructure to commence with the necessary lending into the real economy and to consumers and handle mortgages.

Then there are a lot more things you need, rather then repeat it again here, simply look here: http://www.jhwh.be thank you.

What is the problem with for-profit finance: it is always most profitable where wages are lowest. That actually puts bad people in power, who have no qualms about exploiting their fellow human beings. Investment must at least be non-profit, a democratic government is the logical party to do so. Of course that will require a lot of work, to make the USA democratic.

best regards, jos

George W. Bush said this morning that it will take some time for the rescue package to have its effect and work in the US. I agree with him and I think the UK rescue plan will need time too.

I’m not an economist but here’s an idea to maybe help with the financial crisis…
What would happen if all home loans were done on simple interest? I need $100,000.00 for a home. The bank charges me 25% simple interest. My total I owe is now $125,000.00. That would be a payment of appx $350.00 per month over a 30 year period. My idea would have the bank get all their interest money first, any extra sent in would also go to the interest. Once the interest is paid then the payments start going towards the principal. I see this helping in multiple ways…First, the bank gets their interest money back much faster, not over a 30 year period. Second, my monthly payment is much less than it is now with conventional interest schemes. Enough so that I will probably want to pay off the note in it’s entirety much faster. Also, I have now only paid 125K for my house instead of almost 300K with the current system. More people could afford housing, more houses could be built, more jobs would be created, etc… I realize the lenders wouldn’t be making as much total profit but they would be making it quicker from more people overall, and lets face it, they aren’t making much of anything right now. I’ve pointed out the “pros”, someone give me the “cons”.

it is time to merge currencies create the euro dollar and stop these accounting practices which lead to wholesale rape every 20 years of public savings. having two seperate accounting practices both sides of the atlantic is total madness, seeing as how both are working together. in the real world if you don,t have a connected network you build a new one. since we are already in the abyss why use scalpal bring in the bulldozer and build a new foundation.
media fueled gambling with public savings should be made a thing of the past. also we all are respnsible as we have had years of wasteful spending on holidays, big cars, nice houses and good earnings globally.
did we really think we weren't going to pay on the way out of the restaurant?

If the U.S. government would come to there senses and pass the Fair Tax our economy would recover almost overnight. Why is the Fair Tax concstantly ignored? Has anyone even considered putting that into debate? What is wrong with this picture?

The solution to the financial crisis is not nationizing banks. When was the last time a Government program, on either side of the Atlantic, really worked right? Replacing one corrupt banking CEO with another corrupt Government beurocrat is not the answer. Socialization is not the solution (the reason the U.S. is the economic powerhouse it is today still, is due to CAPITALISM – it still works). Our problem was initially brought about by the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates too low for too long. This resulted in over-incentive to finance purchases instead of saving, adding greatly to individual debtload. Then unregulated oil commodities speculators driving up the price/barrel of oil to $147, driving up gas/diesel prices to over $4/gallon in the U.S. (not comparible with socialistic countries cost since they include insane taxes in their mix). This was insane and resulted in a vast redistribution of wealth from everything else in the economy (including stocks) to pay for fuel cost for everyone from the consumer to small business owner. Then you had the irresponsible borrowers and lenders, buying homes they couldn't afford and lending homes to people not qualified by "common sense" standards. Then through vast deregulation, investment houses world-wide began using "Enron" type accounting procedures to bundle and package risky mortgage instruments that had no intrensic value on the assumption the housing "bubble" would not pop, or worse yet, failing to recognize the bubble. Then throw in short-sellers, the bane of all markets, whose one sole purpose for existance is to make a quick profit at the expense of a companies share value (which it needs to finance operations and pay it's employees). Then you have the "mark-to-market" rule, which through forcing companies to continually adjust their balance sheet to reflect stock market share value, exposes the company to undue volitality risk (particularly from vulturous short-sellers). All of these ingredients when mixed together resulted in this world-wide economic malaise we have now. Unfortunately, the only solution that would work is to abolish permanantly the short-seller from the markets, the "mark-to-market" rule, and the oil commodities trader (who's stated primary goal of "establishing market stability of oil prices for the customer through the use of contracts" is a flaming joke). No more socialization of anything, but more regulation of trading done by the "big boys" (investment houses) by the SEC is needed.

This is all truely odd. Im guessing there are 500000 loans in the US that are really bad housing debt and lets say that the value on these defaulters is on average $250000 below what they were written at. Thats 125 billion dollars all up. Even if im 50% wrong its still going to be less than 300 billion. Thus there is no way what we are seeing reflects the actual losses. Its a massive overreaction. And what im not seeing is leaders or finance ministers pointing this out forcefully. This needed a proper accounting of the debt and valuation of the instruments based on it. Governments buying up the root of the bad debt also works. But everything downstream is blind panic and i do not see leaders trying to calm this. Bush's speeches are truely lamentable and show his fundamental lack of grasp of anything. Im also not seeing a coherent dont panic from any of the others. They all just want to throw more money on the bonfire, and in the case of a lot of countries its money they dont have.

None of these financial system issues are easily solved. The only single reason for this is the human mind and emotions that drive us as a single race. Here's why!

This planet has only a given amount of resource vs. a growing unrealistic human need for wealth. How can anybody expect constant high levels of growth when market(s) that have been created do not actually exist? They can't sure and simple!

How can banks lend between themselves, and then to consumers believing there is an ability to repay this debt. Many of these consumer lines of credit exist based on a persons paper wealth be it shares or property. Unfortunately much of this percieved wealth is now not present. Was it ever? Most probably not.

There needs to be a level of intervention by governments that ensures lending criteria is strict and lines of credit be they for business or consumers are realistic in terms of volume and criteria.

Ultimately only the marekt(s) will sort this out beacuse I do not believe large corporates or leaders of these organisations will really understand fundamental paradigm change until people are personally affected or suffering greatly!!!!!

Interestingly I work for a corporate business, do not possess any debt outside of a mortgage, and believe we are seeing long term fundamental changes to the world. It's nothing to be scared of unless you have lived beyond your realistic means.

So the G7 got toghether. Another trip and alot more talk !!
What for do we have today state of the art computors,conference telephone systems etc,that all this wasted trips are required,when all this can be done from an office??
The point is,it´s about time that the leaders became leaders and the nonsense stops!!!!!

I am not a banker, so I don't know what banks need. But I am a consumer and I know what consumers need. I don't buy a new house every day ... and I certainly don't have the guaranteed maximum amount of cash in the bank (now a whopping $250,000 in the US). But I do buy what common people buy every day ... things like food, gas, or clothes ... and I pay for parking where I work. In order to BE a consumer, I need my salary from my job ... and the government needs taxes from my salary. Instead of rescuing those who made bad choices, why not create more jobs (maybe like they did in the Depression) for those of us who have little or no choice in the economy ... to create more consumer spending and to create more taxes for the government to operate?

I am wondering why everyone around the world reports on what the DJIA does, when it contains merely 30 stocks out of many thousands!

Since the financial market crash at present is a psychological phenomenon, wouldn't it be more helpful if the world looked at what the "real" American markets are doing and not just a handful of companies within?

For example, the DJIA closed down on the 10th of October by 1.49%, which is a very negative news, but at the same time the Nasdaq (500 stocks) closed up by 0.27% and the Russell 2000 (2000 stocks) closed up by almost 5%.

The world would have been much better off knowing that 2000 stocks ended on the positive side than knowing that 30 ended on the negative!

Uhh...

Dear Mr Quest,

With regard to the benighted Mr Darling:
kindly be advised that waving his arms and beetling his brows has thus far failed to accomplish anything.

In short, it's too late. Last year would have been about right.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Another Briton for Old Labour!

Surely something must be done but the real problem is how effective can an action be when it's done after the fact.
Goverments are reacting to problems insted of being a step ahead of the problem.
This is the reason why no matter how much money is poured in & intensions expressed. They all have no effect on the markets.
Personaly I think the UK bail out plan addresses the problem in short medium & long term ways.
The only downside about it is rather late.
The damage has been done & confidence is gone.

Why now, all the money being created now has already been spent and already been lost so it won't help, the six trillion dollars in liquidity on the sides? where is it?

And they( governments) may be able to throw money in to a fire pit, but how do you buy trust, everyone knows now that everyone else is a crook like himself, and what was sophisticated scheme of yesterday was just another swindle, much like an e mail from Nigeria, but with a real return address.

And lastly, what idiot would now want to loan money to fools that can not keep a budget to buy I-pods or flat screen tvs, much less large homes.

As oil is now crashing the wealth of the rich Arab Sovereign funds is disappearing faster than the Gennie of the oil lamp, and the Texas, Alaska and the Canadian oil projets are soon to go up in smoke with their respective economies.
ANY QUESTIONS?
tombstone001.blogspot.com

I doubt it is too late to save the day..the markets and governments will sort themselves out (as they always do) eventually.

Lessons will be learnt, correction actions implemented and then over time all this will be forgotten and we will have another major meltdown :)

Remember none of this was suppose to happen after the Savings and Loan Crisis!

Cheers,

Greg

http://www.shareswatch.com.au/blog/

its a very old saying.........."cut your coat according to your cloth"........gross negligence of this has landed the whole world in dire crisis!

Is somebody in the news business starting a "MOST WANTED" tracking of the CEO's, CFO's and others that took the money and ran? What a concept to hold people accountable? The dog and pony shows going on in congress right now are just that. Once they, the big wigs, have had their hand slapped, will anything be done?
Cheers!!

@ Greg

Optimist! Or, alternatively, delusional!

the markets and governments will sort themselves out (as they always do) eventually.

Well, that's a cheery thought. The question is, is the thought yours, or did the Government-Gremlins and Free-Market Fairies put it in your head, whilst you slept?

I've heard similarly cheery thoughts from locked-ward psychotics, you see. They believed in all sorts of other things that were either wholly unverifiable, or patently false, as well.

Forgive me if I choose to reserve judgement. I'm sure you don't understand. It's not personal.

I just don't believe anything I hear from George Bush. The more often he says it, the less likely it is to be true. Ditto Gordon Brown...

:-) Think happy thoughts, and it will all be better by and by?

Yaright, Peter Pan.

So sorry. :-( Mother Jones, here. There will also, as the old trade-unionist song goes, be 'pie in sky when we die'.

In my mind the reason for the worldwide financial meltdown is GREED, and the mechanisms which allowed it to propogate. Capitalism and the American model has taken a gigantic hit and ironicallly its saviour will be social protectionist regulations. The irony of it all.

Whom to blame? US people taking on to much debt as well as greedy bankers at the scene of crime who made it possible.

Market should be closed for a quarter. What I think we are seeing is forced liquidation at bargain price due to the rapid decline and irrational behavior. Most people probably have some sort of leverage, albeit low, in a fast decline of 30-50% they are likely forced to sell before the next paycheck to meet up with their margin calls. The ball will continue to spin until all markets are close to 0. After this flush out market will not be able to go up since the masses are already broke and their purchase power is equal to zero in both main street and wallstreet. Thus I conclude that the process will be unreversable for the next 10 to 30 years. If no solution close the markets so that people are able to rebuild their capital by working and saving. Some markets in Europe have fallen more than they did during the great depression which is alarming. Christina Romer & Harold Bierman papers pinpoint both leverage and confidence as two important aspects. Lets hope this does not play out, again.

Yes, it is too late. Because it is the first financial crisises during the global internet area. While the financial markets are operating in the on-line systems, the governments are acting on traditionial ways. They were not prepared, that financail market operates in the "global virtual world", but effects the real global economy. And now this causes the effect, that the financal crisises spreads like "a global computer virus." Whether the governments are ready and able to set up a global "fire-wall"? I ´ll doubt.

Can somebody tell us all where all the trusted credit agencies like Standard & Poor, Fitch, Moody's etc. were during these last few years when most of us were taking investment decisions based on their ratings?

Is it possible that none of them had any idea or suspicion about this oncoming crisis?

Which of the big players in the financial markets did they downgrade with some degree of foresight???

It really is late & so far nothing has been working.Perhaps, the situation being how it is where nobody can really figure out how deep rooted the problem really is also makes it next to impossible to do anything. Perhaps we just have to hang on tight & hold our breaths because the chips have not fallen yet where they must.
Perhaps if we really want to put our Financial house in order.Certain & some Financial institutions must be left to fold up. We just have to leave w/ the consequences of things & bite the bullet.
If there is really anybody to protect & defend. It has the be the millions of innocent people who are victims of certain peoples obsesions for risk taking.

It is good that global financial meltdown happens now. It happens in the developed nation and spill on to the less develop. This is a healthy sign. Reason is that the vast disparity between the rich and poor nation is totally imbalanced. What I mean here is that poor nation is working so hard but their efforts are not translated into wealth like the rich nations. This financial trouble is like water finding it's level. It has to create a global wealth balance. The rich nations wealth is too artificial. They don't really slog out to be truly rewarded. The poor nations are the true contributors to the wealth of most nations. What if the whole world is like USA, fully developed with high standard and cost if living? Just give a thought on this. Remember the Asian financial crisis 10 years ago? Actually, that crisis is not suppose to occur in Asia but due to the clever manipulators from the west, the Asians becomes the scapegoat. And they further drained the poor, hardworking Asians to delay their internal crisis. Today 10 years later, the poor nation is still struggling to survive and the rich nation realised that they cannot suck much milk from the already sick cow anymore!! Now they need to slaughter their own family members to stay alive. Think about it.... It's very true.

Polical parties all over the world are nowadays scared to death
about their own future and the next comming elections but all they
do is running like headless chicken in a hen house because
NONE OF THEM KNOW WHAT TO DO

I think this time the tunnel appears to be soo.......long that none
can see any light at the end of it.
IT is no longer a matter of banks not trusting eachother but
PEOPLE not trusting ALL OF THEM !

Regards

Why isn't the media including CNN slamming Paulson actions as reflecting only two possibilities, both of which should have the media demanding his firing (as it did of Michael Brown of FEMA in the New Orleans crisis)...

a) incredible stupidity and/or incompetence. Really this is so deja vu of how Bush and another of his appointees (Brown) handled NewOrleans, I am eagerly awaiting for a press conference where Bush turns to Paulson and says..."Henry you're doing a heck of a job!")

b) Cronyism, self-interest, conflict of interest....you name it. I mean when Paulson says that he is reviewing "all" the options, this is a total obvious lie.

Let me quote Michael Hudson from Global Research.ca, who points out how Paulson has never considered the obvious and best option that Britain for example is going with to protect their taxpayers (and Sweden successfully used in a past crisis)...

"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's first option was to buy packages of junk mortgages (collateralized debt obligations, CDOs) to save the wealthiest institutional investors from having to take a loss on their bad bets. When this was not enough, he came up with "Plan B," to give money to banks."

"But whereas Britain and European countries talked of nationalizing banks or at least taking a controlling interest, Mr. Paulson gave in to his Wall Street cronies and promised that the government's stock purchases would not be real. There would be no dilution of existing shareholders, and the government's investment would be non-voting. To cap the giveaway to his cronies, Mr. Paulson even agreed not to ask executives to give up their golden parachutes, exorbitant annual bonuses or salaries."

The government bailout of wall street is one of the greatest shell game cons I have ever seen. Henry Paulson is a Wall Street CEO first and forever. He is concerned only to find new ways to line the pockets of his friends, who will no doubt find the appropriate ways to show their gratitude after the election. The next President must undertake a full criminal investigation of these events and see that all the executives who engaged in fraudulent activities are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The full powers of the RICO statute must be brought to bear not only to see that they go to prison, but are stripped of their ill-gotten booty.

And now CNN reports that the Federal Reserve is extending unlimited credit to three other central banks. Would some one please explain this to me? Those foreign central banks have the same power to create money and inject liquidity into their financial systems as does the Federal Reserve here. To the extent that foreign financial institutions were willing or incompetent participants in this massive financial misconduct, that is the result of THEIR own greed and the failure of oversight by THEIR governments. Does anyone really believe that these loans will ever be repaid? They will simply disappear down the same gaping hole as other trillions of dollars of loans and other financial aid extended to an ungrateful world since the end of WWII.

I fear that one totally predictable outcome of this massive monetizing of worldwide debt will be a new inflationary spiral which will ultimately choke off any real economic recovery. This will be felt especially severely in the US as the dollar sinks inexorably to the status of toilet paper

I have mentioned before that the fair tax would be a major fix permanently and boost to our economy. But, with the democrat far left T.V. station carrying this blog the point will never even be considered for the bias that CNN has against the republican view. It's not just a republican thing but something that will help everyone!

I believe the international community should ask Robert Mugabe for assistance. He has made every person in Zimbabwe a millionaire.

Something must be done, yes. The United States of America needs to get back on track, then the whole world will follow...
There are elections now: John Mccain, THAT is who should be President... Obama is not President yet, and he 'has spent' $1,000,000,000,000,000 all ready, putting the U.S. in a larger problem than they all ready have now.
Sure, Obama talks a very good game, and the majoriy of Americans will listen, but when he gets to the White House, he, and all the so very gullible Americans will find out that all that he had was "a dream," like his idol, Martin Luther King Jr., the American Economy will lose, followed almost immediately by more severe losses in the World Economy....:-(

We live in interesting times.
During the last fifteen years we have seen the communist plane economic system fail and dissapear. This time it was the winner of the cold war race (capitalism) that crashed and burned!

Free markets will never ever be able to regulate themselves that is now proven beyond any doubt, just as to much regulations will kill creativity.

After careful concideration that leads me to believe that they (capitalism and plane economy) are both fundamentaly flawed!

just as evolution in nature develops “new models” in order for species to survive and stay strong, we need something to replace what has proven to be broken and not working. It is time for something new!

Tobias, Sweden

We have done too much. It's too late to save this country from financial ruin. Get a clue folks. Too many of our jobs have left this country to fix the problem. When to go from making $20 or more an hour, to that crappy drop in the bucket they call minimum wage, then yes your whole life changes. You can no longer make your house payment, car payment, ect. So you tell me. Do we need our good paying jobs back or not? They are trying to blame the financial institutions for all of this mess. But they aren't telling the whole story.

Why is it that Americans live so much in fear and why is it that Fear is pushed in the masses?
There is nothing wrong with the economy! All you have to do is end the war! You can find other ways of making money other than selling guns!
\

Are you confused, or wondering what Joe Biden Really meant about Barack Obama potentially being "tested" There is a simple explanation for your worries.. Ever since America has been America, every elected president in history has been "tested". When John F. Kennedy was in office, his test came in the form of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which almost set off a nuclear war, but in the end, did not. Another example.. when George Bush was elected. very soon after Alkaida operatives, under Osama Bin Laden's direction, flew a plan into the world trade center buildings. None of these things are Intentionally committed against the U.S.A, or the presidency for that matter, by an inside culprit, they simply happen, naturally, due to the inevitable dis-agreements, threats, economic differences, hatred, etc.. issues that every country suffers from around the World!. Every president in history, in every country has been un-intentionally "tested" by the powers from another country.. If this did not occur, obviously, there would literally be world peace, people!. This is simply what Joe Biden was conveying when he made his statement, and obviously alot of people with little or no "common political sense" understand what the Hell he meant, Omg!. Also, what Joe Biden meant when he said "It's not going to be apparent initially; it's not going to be apparent that we're right." obviously, has a similar meaning; not every president in history was praised for his decision making, but eventually.. we got through it, and it was later apparent that it indeed, Was the correct thing to do!, (Just like Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves!). If after reading this, you still do not understand, or get the point, as simple as I have put it for you; then perhaps you should not be voting in the first place. Thank you for your time... and good luck!.

I have family with two kids headed for college next year. For the last three weeks, most of my peers have been lamenting over the vast amounts of money they lost in the markets. Most have lost in excess of 40% in the past year. I was without a job for close to three years – why didn't I lose 40% of my debt?

What about pardon individual bad credits like it was done in the past with countries under dire straits and so give the over extend families some room to breed. Woudn't this boost confidence by giving them some hope? Of course, these families would be put on temporary credit probation. The same could be applied to the mortgages by reducing them to an agreed on market value of their properties. Would be better for the banks to loose part of it than foreclosed.

It looks simple but who am I. It is just a thought.

Dear Mr Quest,

But this shriek of “something must be done” is a bit disingenuous. It is 12 months since the credit markets first seized up, and we are only now getting macro economic policy responses on a co-ordinated scale.

Better late than never — but let’s hope it’s not too late.

Let's hope, indeed. It looks as though it is too late.

'Something must be done' is almost immediately followed with the calling of meetings, and much talk. So far, we're true to form.

Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown have done something that should raise the eyebrows, if not the ire, of all people who expect that national leaders will act with prudence and fairness in any crisis.

CNN who likes to think it is always on top of every important issue and brags that it relishes asking 'tough questions" of politicians have had nothing whatsoever to say about the outrageous actions taken by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling in respect to the international banking crisis, in general, and the situation with Iceland, in particular.

In early October when Iceland nationalized its two biggest banks, Landisbanki and Kaupthing, UK depositors with savings in those banks were adversely effected. Initially, the finance minister of Iceland assured Brown and Darling that Iceland would guarantee 100% of savings in Iceland banks including the deposits of UK citizens. A day later, the Prime Minister of Iceland repudiated the guarantee and is said to have commented that "Iceland has no intention of honoring the guarantee."

Gordon Brown responded impetuously by invoking some arcane UK anti-terrorist law that allowed him to declare Iceland a state sponsor of terrorism and, thus, "freeze" the assets of Icelandic companies in the UK.

What Brown froze or seized was not the property or 'assets' of Iceland companies unless the term 'assets' is viewed narrowly in an accounting parlance or context. What was seized was the savings of ordinary people like me whose life savings, in many instances, were deposited in Kaupthing Singer Friedlander Bank in the Isle of Man and in Kaupthing Bank UK.

Essentially, what has occurred is that Brown has improperly used an irrelevant and spurious law to misappropriate the deposits and/or savings of one group to reimburse the losses of another.

How can this kind of action go un-investigated and un-reported by a distinguished news organization like CNN? You are a UK-trained barrister or solicitor, perhaps you can explain by what element of fairness or justice one man may unilaterally and arbitrarily appropriate the property of one man to recompense another irrespective of the nationalities of the persons and/or nations involved. How can Brown's criminal behavior be allowed to stand under UK and International law?