Time for another windfall tax?

Windfall taxes - remember them? The last one was introduced in Gordon Brown's very first budget and targeted growth in the value of utility companies following their privatisation, the cash being earmarked for employment schemes.

Now, with the owner of British Gas, Centrica, announcing a 35% rise in gas prices and a £992m profit, there's talk of a new one.

Credit crunch: just a nibble so far?

Shivers went through the financial markets - let alone down poor Joe
Public's spine - as a former IMF bigwig predicted a big US bank
failure.

"We're not just going to see mid-sized banks go under in the next few
months, we're going to see a whopper," Kenneth Rogoff, the fund's
former chief economist turned Harvard professor, told a conference in Singapore.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: The world's biggest bailout

The Freddie Mac headquarters in McLean, Virginia. Photograph: Paul J Richards/AFP/Getty Images

Even the boundless capitalists of the Republican party can nationalise - though they call it by a different name

Congress balks at banks bailout plan

Henry Paulson, the US treasury secretary, talks to the media about efforts to heal the crisis in the financial markets on Friday. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
The markets are on the retreat again as the US Congress – Republican and Democrat members – cavil about the Bush administration's proposed $700bn (£377bn) rescue plan for the banking sector.

Several commentators express reservations about the plan, particularly as it would concentrate enormous power in the hands of the treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, who would take charge of the massive fund that would buy "distressed assets" - or, as some wags have called the scheme, "cash for trash".

Blame game resumes after US banks bail-out blocked

To read the headlines, you'd think the end of the world was nigh. The collapse of the $700bn US bail-out of the global financial system attracts dire warnings across the UK papers. We are "Staring into the abyss" (Telegraph) and facing a "World of Pain" (Mirror) after the "Meltdown on Wall Street" (Mail) and the "Blackest Monday" (Sun).

Irish bank guarantee - smart move or catastrophe?

In the short but eventful history of the credit crisis, there has never been anything quite like the Irish government's promise to guarantee all saving deposits at its six retail banks.

The implications of the move have stunned City analysts, even those battle-hardened by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the nationalisation of two UK banks.

Who is weathering the financial storm?

As share prices plummet, banks expire around us like mayflies and even the usually sober Daily Telegraph uses the word "mayhem" in its front page headline, perhaps it's time to consider who is actually coping with the current fiscal woes:

Three people having an even worse day than you

Have you woken up worried about your Icelandic savings? Concerned at the falling value of your home? Or just generally anxious about the fate of the banks?

It might be cold comfort, but here are three sets of people who are, almost certainly, having a worse day than you

Britain's most difficult job?

It's not actually advertised as Britain's most difficult job, but I can't imagine there are many tougher ones on offer at the moment.

As advertised on the front page of today's Sunday Times job pages: wanted, a new Bank of England deputy governor with particular responsibility for financial stability

Banking crisis live: will nationalisation work?

9:03am:
The FTSE is up 5% this morning with banking stocks making big gains as the government put its reps on the boards. Gordon Brown is setting out his "restructuring plan" for the banks. Follow Brown's press conference here.

9:18am:
"Confidence" seems to be the key word today. Brown says the government's plan is all about restoring confidence to the banking sector.

The BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, not someone who lacks confidence himself, says today "will count as perhaps the most extraordinary day in British banking history."

Signs of a recession: AC/DC, pizza and secondhand wedding dresses

Forget negative growth in economic output and unemployment and repossession figures - you know times are hard when these things happen:

1. AC/DC are topping the charts. The last time the Aussie rockers made No 1 in Britain, 28 years ago, the country was on the brink of recession. The Guardian jests that the triumph of the band's Black Ice album could be the "final and irrevocable proof" that we are entering tough economic times.

Other unofficial indicators of the economic slowdown have already been making the news.

The economy expects you to do your consumer duty

Did you know that today is officially (well, at least according to the papers) Mega Monday?

Yes, on December 8 it is your chance – no, your duty – to help the UK spend its way out of a recession with a pre-Christmas online shopping binge.

Today is, apparently, the biggest day of a Christmas online retail season in which more than £13bn will be splurged on gifts, according to the internet trade body IMRG. Those of a cynical mindset might suspect IMRG's hand in the Mega Monday branding.

The mouse-clicking frenzy is supposedly due to peak at lunchtime as workers log on to spend an estimated £28m in an hour.

What would you do to save your employer?

Would you take a pay cut to save your colleagues from unemployment? That is the conundrum reportedly faced by staff at the steel giant Corus.

According to the Financial Times, unions representing the company's 25,000 British staff have offered to accept a temporary 10% reduction in pay as a way of saving a Corus plant in Newport, South Wales, from closure.

It's worth noting straight away that one of the three unions involved later today in talks about the economic woes facing the steel industry, the GMB, has already robustly dismissed the idea as "utter bollocks".

Big Three dominoes totter

A picture from 1904 shows the Ford Motor Company's Piquette plant. The recession and falling sales spell trouble ahead for Michigan's economy. Photograph: AP

The domino effect - a phrase used during the Vietnam war – has cropped up again, this time in connection with the parlous state of America's car sector.

Buy one partridge, get the pear tree free

This year's thrifty Christmas has prompted a slew of offers to attract people back to the shops: a third off wine at Waitrose, 60% off kettles at Curry's, and half-priced bicycles at Halfords. The Guardian calls it "discount madness".

Tracey's Thrifty Tips reports that many of the shops in Brighton are offering 50% discounts while she plays a game of discount chicken with Jaegar over a handbag.

Those shopping online now also increasingly expect to be offered bargains. According to Hitwise, searches for discount vouchers have increased by 133% in the last 12 months.

The shopping blogger Calamity Jems recommends car boot sales where, she claims, Vivienne Westwood coats can go for as little as £40.

Meanwhile, the Irish have been taking advantage of the weak pound to flood across the border and into Northern Ireland's shops. Takings in Strabane Asda are up 54%. "The scale of the influx is staggering," says the BBC's Mark Simpson.

Have you come across any good bargains? Please share your tips for Christmas on the cheap

Saving private finance

"Gamble" seems to be the word most of the papers use to describe the government's latest plan to bail out the banking system.

The Mail describes it as a "terrifying gamble" and, in a dramatic editorial, declares: "If it fails, our children – and perhaps our children's children – will have to pay the price." The Telegraph suggests the same.

National excess? New uniform wears patience of women rail staff

Robert Matthews and Irina Russu model fashion designer Bruce Oldfield's designs for McDonalds' staff uniforms Photograph: Teri Pengilley

Women railway workers on the East Coast line between London and Edinburgh are refusing to wear their new uniform, which includes a see-through blouse that leaves "little to the imagination" of passengers.

National Express staff have posted the blouses back to the company in disgust and demanded new, more opaque ones, according to The Transport Salaried Staff

Where is Sir Allen Stanford?

As the hunt for Sir Allen Stanford continues, hundreds of customers desparate to withdraw their savings have formed long lines outside banks in Antigua and Latin America Link to this video
Where is Sir Allen Stanford? It's today's $8bn–question, as the hunt continues for the Texan businessman and cricket tycoon wanted for alleged fraud of "shocking magnitude that has spread its tentacles throughout the world".

There are now fears for his safety amid reports that he may have been linked to a Mexican drugs cartel. According to the US TV channel CNBC, he tried to hire a private jet from Houston to Antigua, but the plane-lease company refused his credit card.

A guide to G20 protests in London

The G20 summit in London next week will be the target of widespread protests, many of which are being organised online. City workers have been warned that they might be targeted and police are preparing a massive security operation. But who are the protesters and what are they planning?

Step back in time

Retail price inflation has fallen to 0%, it was announced today. It is the lowest figure since 1960 when Harold Macmillan was prime minister. What else was happening that year?