PUBLIC MARKS with tags banks & recession

Niall Ferguson, respected economic historian, warns of other European countries facing an Iceland style bankruptcy. 'Switzerland is first in line… and Britain is not far behind,' he says. While many politicians in Europe like to shift the blame for the credit crisis to the U.S. Niall points out that excessive lending and leveraging was much more endemic in countries such as Germany and the U.K. Yet the U.K Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, like many European politicians continues to argue that the world is being brought down by a U.S. caused recession.

Dutch illustrator Tom Janssen wins the Inktspot prize in 2008, the prize for the best political cartoon in the national or regional press. The drawing is an outstretched hand with a gold Rolex. The drawing was published on September 23, 2008 in newspaper Trouw. It was the beginning of the credit crisis, when banks had worldwide liquidity problems and asked for government help.