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Elsewhere on Thursday,

- “A business that needs cash will be no better off if it can’t borrow at a lower rate than it was when it could not borrow at a higher rate.”

- “Persuading seven governments to act together is no mean feat. But putting on a well-organised cavalry display doesn’t win battles and while welcome, the rate cuts are likely to be of limited use.”

- “Years from now investors will wonder whether this week’s Time Magazine, which features the Depression-era soup lines, will serve as another piece of evidence for the contrarians. Certainly the commentary this week on the Today Show from CNBC’s Jim Cramer falls into that category.”

- “Since the Scots now want their independence back, perhaps they could take RBS and Bank of Scotland with them?”

- “You know when you want to tell someone something that’s going to be really, really awkward? If you’re like us, you put it off as long as possible. That’s what now seems to be happening with the plural marriage being worked out between Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Wachovia.”

- “Of all the Big Ideas which have been thoroughly discredited over the course of this crisis, arguably the biggest is the concept that homeownership is always and everywhere a Good Thing.”

- “Whatever mix of sanctimony and schadenfreude may have existed among Europeans who’d watched the American economic system explode in recent weeks has surely now evaporated.”

- “I have said that if the house is burning down, the priority is to put the fire out – the time for figuring out who started the fire, who built such an inflammable house and who allowed such a fire-trap to be built will come later.”

- “The biggest problem continues to be that no one in authority seems able to explain what is happening and why, so all of this feverish government action is scaring everyone to death.”