While all attention here has been focused on the B&B rescue and the drama in Congress over the Paulson plan – to say nothing of Osborne's speech to the Conservative Party conference and, of course, the Fortis rescue – less attention has been given to events in Germany.

There, according to Deutsche Welle, the German government has been injecting "billions of euros" into troubled commercial property lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE). This, we are told, is the first German blue-chip company to seek a bailout in the global financial crisis.

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The crazy thing is that HRE's business model should distance it from the current situation, it's all the fault of those dammned mortgage backed securities, and greedy traders.

I guess more interesting to you than the mere fact Hypo Real Estate needed to be saved might be the fact HOW this was done.

Haven't you specifically pointed out on how many occasions Europeans bailouts are delayed because of the EU's competence on the issue? Well here it seems the shortest road has been taken:

http://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehm ... 47,00.html

Dexia - a Franco Belgian bank - is also being bailed out to the tune of 6.4 billion Euros by the French, Belgian and Luxemburgish governments. How many more?

Article in French : http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/depeches ... euros.html