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.