And So It Ends - Hungary’s Government Announces Foreign Currency Loan Wind-up Package. Edward Hugh, A Fistful of Euros (en)
" ... So here, right now, and on 23 October 2008 in Budapest ends, in my opinion, a fashion for taking out non-local currency denominated loans, which lasted the best part of a decade and sewpt across half a continent, and especially in Central and Eastern Europe . Basically government after government in one CEE country after another will now find themselves with little alternative but to follow Hungary’s lead, as the parent banks turn off the tap on the one hand and the citizens themselves grow more and more nervous on the other ..."

The Sarkozy factor. Stanley Crossick, Bogactiv.eu (en)
" ... We all knew that when trying to second guess the French President, we would be dealing with a “known unknown”. Which Sarkozy would we meet on any issue: the dynamic, highly intelligent and focused one or the egotistical, overbearing impetuous one?
So far, so very good. His leadership on the financial meltdown has been excellent; inevitably bruising some egos. His recent statements suggest that there will be some stormy times ahead, but real debate on real issues is what the EU needs. Some Sarkozy developments ..."

A smell of decadence. Richard, EUReferendum (en)
" ... But the crises are far from over. In anything, we are about to enter a new and more dangerous phase, with not banks at risk of collapse, but whole countries, their currencies and economies.The danger is graphically illustrated today by Anatole Kaletsky, in a story headed, "A new set of financial skittles is ready to fall", as he charts what he calls "a series of powerful aftershocks." This, he writes, "has been shaking Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Argentina and many other countries on the periphery of the global financial system, threatening not only their economies, but even their systems of government ...
...But, whatever happens, the "Weimar culture" of today's society will glide on serenely unaware of events, locked in its own tiny, obsessive, self-referential world, until the whole edifice crumbles around it. If it is then shocked at the outcome we, at least, will have some idea of the sort of thing that will come next ...

This is not a game. Richard, EUReferendum (en)
" ... Two days in a row, we find ourselves in almost total agreement with a Daily Telegraph columnist. Yesterday, it was Heffer and today it is Iain Martin.The target of our approval today muses on the state into which the Conservative Party has descended, observing thus:
"The metropolitan elite into which the Conservatives are being sucked is not actually particularly interested in ideas, or reform, and, unfortunately, senior Tories have too often given the impression - crucially, not Cameron himself - that they have become so pragmatic that they long ago forgot what they hope to achieve by winning office" ..."

Inquiry into Britain's Finances. Ironies Too (en)
" ... What with the Bank of England forecasting a prolonged downturn, Mr Brown at last acknowledging recession, the imposition of a three-day week at Nissan’s factory in Sunderland and the pound suffering its sharpest fall since the aftermath of Black Wednesday in 1992, it takes a special kind fool to oust Mr Brown’s shortcomings from the headlines ..."