from Alan Ramsey …… 

The Rudd Government this week "dealt" with the gravest "global financial crisis" since the Great Depression of the 1930s by ignoring Parliament. 

Scanners being tested at Melbourne Airport will not blur the genitals of passengers.

Transport security authorities are trialling the new 'X-ray backscatter' body scanner, which has been described by critics as a 'virtual strip search'. 

The Government has some power to influence executive pay levels. But it can't do so alone. It needs help from company boards. Hitherto boards have been in the thrall of chief executives, seduced by the cult of the big chief, happy to be duchessed and co-opted.  

Gordon Brown's key role in heading off a global financial crisis was challenged last night by the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. 

The two leaders jostled for position at a European summit in Brussels amid tensions between them over who should get the credit for the landmark decision by governments around the world to take stakes in ailing banks. 

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has addressed the nation a day after the Prime Minister, accusing the Federal Government of missing the warning signs ahead of the financial crisis. 

No knives, or sharp objects

No liquids or gels over 3 fl.oz

No weapons

- sign on door of Richmond International Airport

The Anchor Baby summarizes the wingnut pushback on the unmasking of the diseased Republican base:  

Exorbitant executive salaries may get a trim under a Federal Government plan to deal with the "extreme capitalism'' at the root of the global financial crisis. 

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today revealed the government will work with the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) to bring fat-cat pay packets under control. 

In a televised address to the nation Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the Government will do whatever is necessary to maintain economic stability, as dire global conditions continue. 

If it sometimes seems that Wall Street is a small world, well, it is. For all its global reach, and for all the bitter conflict in recent months, where, for example, Lehman Brothers was left to tumble into bankruptcy while American International Group was bailed out, these are people who know each other, often well.  

If the job is spending money, who you gonna call?  

The federal government. 

The rapidly growing trade in derivatives poses a 'mega-catastrophic risk' for the economy and most shares are still 'too expensive', legendary investor Warren Buffett has warned. 

Sarah Palin received a barrage of boos from the crowd when she dropped the puck at last night's Flyers opener.  And honestly, who didn't see that coming?   

The problem is that the markets no longer have any faith that the world financial system they helped create has any future.  

The model is bust. It is encouraging that both the Americans and Germans are now moving towards what they considered ideologically unthinkable a fortnight ago - they are preparing to follow the British lead, take big public stakes in banks and offer guarantees to the interbank market. 

The Federal Government says its move to guarantee all bank deposits for the next three years does not mean there is a problem with Australian banks. 

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that the Government will guarantee all deposits in banks, building societies, credit unions or Australian subsidiaries of foreign banks.