Shorn Bank Shares, Shaven Poll Ratings, Shredded Nerves

摘要

Three months ago the British government led the world with its emergency measures to stave off a wholesale collapse of the financial system. As other countries adopted the same policy of recapitalising banks, Gordon Brown's reputation was burnished and his poll ratings enjoyed a startling bounce.rnBut if the prime minister was hoping to get another political lift this week as he announced a fresh initiative to help Britain's banks, he must have been disappointed. Their share prices turned to stone (see chart)-thanks partly to the expiry on January 16th of the ban on short-selling financial stocks-and sterling was battered as dealers worried about cross-infection between ailing banks and a sick economy.