SAME TUNE, DIFFERENT BAND

Here's what we have from around the world so far ...

1. More than $25 trillion has vanished from global equities in 2008.

2. Benchmark European stocks fell 22 percent last week.

3. The Dow had its worst week since 1914.

4. The World Index of stocks in 23 developed countries slid 20 percent, the most since records began in 1970.

5. European banks wrote down $226.8 billion out of a global total of $635 billion

To deal with these issues, according to Bloomberg.com, the Europeans are making a concerted effort to confront the global economic crisis. Among the measures taken include:

1. A pledge to guarantee bank debt with maturities up to five years (through 2009).

2. Allowing governments to buy bank stakes.

3. A commitment to bailout "systemically" critical banks in distress.

Hmmmm ... I don't see any regulatory discipline, or penalties for the knuckleheads who got us into this mess. The European response pretty much allows states to use taxpayer money to bailout global financial institutions who made stupid decisions when they should have known better.

Hang on. Something tells me we'll we discussing this stuff for a long time.

- Mark