Waiting for the big one

摘要

If A week is a long time in politics, in finance it can be an eternity. In just a few days some of Europe's leaders changed their attitude from Schadenfreude over America's banking woes to near-panic as banks teetered in Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, the Benelux and Iceland.rnThe fear that spread through the wholesale money markets after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and the crumpling of several of the European banks that relied on them for funding, may have caught some of the region's politicians by surprise. But by mid-week bank supervisors across Europe (hardly a sanguine lot at the best of times) were heaving a collective sigh of relief. With remarkably little muddle, five banks in seven countries had been bailed out or culled.