Re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic........

RB, Aberdeen,

I think calling an 80 point drop a 'dive' is a slight over-dramatisation in an already sensitive situation, don't you? Although there is certainly something real going on, the media is a big part of all this panic.

James, Beijing, China

There must be some way to curb oil speculators, not much point in a recovery if oil goes above 100 $, this is crazy, jim

jim, donegal, Ireland

Typical 'shoot first - ask questions later' policy - just like everything cowboy Bush does.

sam, london,

Housing in the US and the UK is overpriced. Throwing taxpayers money to prop them up is absurd and doomed to failure. We cannot afford these prices. It would be better to let the bubble burst and use the trillion dollars to mop up the mess and set up a new financial system from the wreckage.

Simon, London, UK

the article makes reference to both Republican and Democrat efforts to attach conditions to the bailout plan.

'Paul Lennon' (a mix of Paul McCartney and John Lennon?) who claims to be from Edgware, London lays the blame squarely with the Democrats in congress. Partisan political activist perhaps?

Linus, London, UK

Hey buddy can you spare 7 Trillion dimes ?

I wonder where Mr Paulson invested the $500 million he received tax free when he left Goldman Sachs and joined the US Government.

Dr Richard Bruce, Cape Town, South Africa

The politicians will be punished.. the Republicans and Labour will pay soon enough.

Ian, portsmouth,

Did I hear correctly when they said that the US Government were trying to get 40 billion pounds from the markets to support AIG?

If so they are in more serious trouble than we thought.

Austin Tassletine, South West , UK

"Giving $700 billion to gambling addicts is not the answer... "
Exactly. It is completely counterproductive, like so many of the quick fixes of the Bush fiasco.

Peter, Liverpool, UK

Not to worry Our Great Leader the Lord of No More Boom & Bust speaks to us soon and he will reveal that the trick of raising Lazarus from the dead will pale into insignificance when he and Ali- the-stare do the Houdini of all Houdini's and take us all to the promised land of plenty.
Plenty of what?

Mike O Connor, Plymouth,

The idea that people should be punished sounds good in principle.
However it also carries the suggestion that the authorities did not know of the problem or did not know how to fix it.
That sounds to me like the politicians.

Robert Good, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Finally the administration is desperate enough to move the conversation to the chambers of Congress. A package will pass, but not without a new regulatory regime for Wall Street and mortgage reform for Main Street. Eight years of Republican "leadership" leaves the US friendless, bruised and broke.

Ray, New York, USA

The markets need to be left alone.

Government both sides of the Atlantic - leave the market alone. It is not there to consume vast quantities of taxpayer - and non-investor - money. It has it's own mechanism which worked beautifully last week.

Let the market fail, and re-balance on its own.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

Would you give a kilo of heroin to a drug addict? No! Giving $700 billion to gambling addicts is not the answer... This will NOT calm things down - they'll get their fix and then want more.

The markets need to be calmed down by controlled delivery of recovery funds - give the market 'hope'.

mark, Kawasaki, Japan

This is just typical of this do nothing Democratic Congress. They should all be voted out in November.

Paul Lennon, Edgware, UK

There are ways to protect the US taxpayer without bailing out leading financial firms. Let the firms approach the US and swap debt for equity. This is what has happened to morgan staley and AIG. Make it open and very favourable to the tax payer. Firms will have the choice, accept or stand alone.

Stephen O'Mara, Tamworth, Australia

The banks created this mess. They must be heavily penalised. The ability to trade short must be taken away from them and others. The Derivatves market for banking, investment and other loan sharks must be closed until there is new heavily punative legislation. Fines in Bn's, bonuses taxed at 99.9%.

IP, Reading,

And the biggest winner of the bail out is likely to be ...Goldman Sachs! - Paulson's old firm.
Most banks will get much less, as they have not marked down so much as they have less dodgy lending.
Paulson also asks to be above the Courts, with no legal review of his decisions allowed.
Shameless scam.

David Martin, Bristol, UK

US is slowly going down...

Alex Mesh, Beijing, China

"Republicans, scared by plans effectively to nationalise part of Wall Street..."

Neither the Republicans or the Democrats are "scared" by nationalization of Wall Street. The "collapse" is orchestrated to usher a stable global currency into the market. There is no free market economy.

Jennifer, Granbury, TX/USA

If the financial system that the western world works under was based on sound finacial principles that one would expect instead of a mystery of products based on massive debt lending, there would be not crisis. Thefinancial system has been corrupted for some time it appears.

Jim Wills, Brisbane, Australia