Brown seizes the day
Strategically and intellectually, the prime minister has switched horses, says a Guardian leader. He deserves credit for doing this fast and well, just as he does for showing greater technical prowess in the face of freefalling markets than that rigid face of Wall Street, Hank Paulson. The immediate effect on his political position, at Westminster if not yet with the public, has been transformational: a prime minister able to lead his country and save its economy against an opposition whose opinions currently seem of little account. That was how things appeared last Wednesday as Mr Brown launched his bail out with a Commons performance stronger than he has managed for years, part of a daring day that will, whatever follows it, change the story of his government. Almost everything that came before then - party conference speeches, leadership plots, bad opinion polls - now appears petty. Leader The Guardian
Full article: Has everything changed? 
People: Is Gordon Brown going blind?
The Mole: Labour believe they have a chance
The next Great Depression
Credit is the oxygen in the system, writes Andreas Whittam-Smith. Take it away and businesses begin to falter. They become like climbers at high altitudes. Last week, for instance, shares in General Motors crashed to their lowest level since 1950. Yes, since just before the company launched the first ever "American" sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette, with its white paintwork and red upholstery. Over 50 years later, General Motors' customers are having increasing difficulty in obtaining car finance. And the stock market was spooked by the fact that loans raised by General Motors itself, already classified as "junk" debt, are to be down-rated even further - to sub-junk, I suppose. In these circumstances, virtually nobody will lend to this giant. It is not fanciful to make comparisons with the Great Depression. Andreas Whittam-Smith The Independent
Full article: We could be on the brink of a Great Depression
Government pumps £37bn into three banks
News in Pictures: The 1929 Wall Street crash
Time for the vulture capitalists
For the past few weeks, an old stockbroking adage has been much quoted: "never try to catch a falling knife". At the same time, however, a great deal of cash has been piling up, waiting for a home, says Bruce Anderson. All the world's money has not suddenly evaporated; some private equity funds are awash with the stuff. There has been a lot of talk about 'vulture funds'; the term is self-explanatory. The markets' distress has created a large amount of enticing carrion. This will not help to endear the capitalist system to an indignant populace, but the rich and bold will prosper in a market where cash is king. Bruce Anderson The Independent
Full article: Yes, the Tories should blame Brown
Business Pages: Stocks rebound on global rescue
The Afghans need a civil war
Afghan gratitude for the creation of a few schools and hospitals is outweighed by the simple fact that, in a diplomat's words: "Seven years ago most of the population felt safe. Now they don't." The only bright spot in an overwhelmingly dark picture is the growing effectiveness of the Afghan army, says Max Hastings. Its troops are fighting well, as Afghans usually do, whoever they happen to be shooting at. The highest aspiration must be for controlled warlordism, not conventional democracy. A civil war may prove an essential preliminary before some crude equilibrium between factions can be achieved. If this sounds a wretched prognosis, it is hard to find informed Westerners with higher expectations. Max Hastings The Guardian
Full article: Afghanistan's best hope is for controlled warlordism
We must fight the Somalian pirates
The Gulf of Aden is a vital pinch-point in sea routes from the East, and a scan of the world's maritime media from India to Argentina confirms that pirate attacks have doubled in a year: 67 so far. The marauders are ever better equipped - radios, speedboats, rocket-propelled grenades. Vast ransoms are paid, and the pirates are sophisticated enough to know insurance values. Of the 26 ships successfully hijacked this year 11 (and 200 crew ) are currently held. One is the Faina, a Ukrainian freighter loaded with Russian heavy weaponry. The marauders' managers are said to have links to fundamentalist movements. As the Americans say, go figure: once al-Qaeda notices that you can cripple the West by disrupting the sea routes, a lot could happen fast. Libby Purves The Times
Full article: It's time to take on the gangsters of the sea
Who are Somalia's millionaire pirates?
In Brief
Obama’s murky connections
Just consider if the boot had been on the other foot and McCain's political career had been launched by an abortion clinic bomber; his mentor for 20 years had been a Ku Klux Klansman, and he had paid nearly a million dollars to far-Right militias who strong-armed voters into fraudulent registrations. Melanie Philips Daily Mail
Full article: Everyone is out to destroy Palin - but it's Obama's past we should examine
Will race undo Obama?
When reviewers, a social scientist said, compare identical resumes of black and white job applicants, white candidates are rated more highly than black candidates. Paradoxically, he says, the more qualified the candidate is, the greater the rating discrepancy is, which is bad news if you're a black man running for the highest office in the land. Styker McGuire The Observer
Full article: The election is not in the bag. Race could still undo Obama
Let gay men donate blood
Some 1 in 100 people who are infused with blood older than 14 days will die – and 13 per cent of infused blood offered by the Red Cross is older than that. This, US epidemiologist and bio-ethicist Dr Scott Halpern explained, poses a risk "thousands of times greater" than "the very worst predictions of HIV infection" if you let latex-loving gay men donate. Johann Hari The Independent
Full article: People are dying because gay men can't give blood
The smug Left
The Left is on a roll. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the political debate - free forever from time-wasting ideological arguments about why the state rather than the individual was the source of moral good - back it all comes. And this time it is rampant with sanctimonious self-satisfaction. Janet Daley Daily Telegraph
Full article: If the Left has its way the bad times will be even worse
Shameless
Whereas wealthy media executives once sought to investigate poverty or arouse anger against it in documentaries and dramas such as Cathy Come Home or Boys From the Black Stuff, now they commission programmes that laugh at it. Nick Cohen The Observer
Full article: History shows how poverty helps the right
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