Papers reflect unprecedented week

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The papers cast their disapproving eyes over the financial upheaval of the past week and demand to know, "what on earth has been going on?"

The Independent called it "seven days that shook the world", while the Times likened it to a roller coaster ride.

It was compared to a hurricane in the Financial Times, which saw the "grandest vessels in the US fleet on to the rocks".

It suggests we may have witnessed "the end of an era of deregulation".

'Loathsome individuals'

Most of the papers ask who was to blame for the succession of events that led the financial markets to disaster?

The Daily Express has no doubt it was those city traders known as "short sellers" - "loathsome individuals" who bet on falls in share values.

But one of the short sellers argues in the Daily Mail that all he does is identify the weakness of a company and profit from it.

"The baying mob" should "grow up" he told the paper.

Cutting back

While the Daily Mirror shouts "Boing!" to reflect the rally in the markets in response to the US rescue plan, many of the papers heed caution.

The Sun warns the "price of rescuing Wall Street will be colossal".

In Britain, it says, "thousands of jobs will go. Pensions have been shattered. Home loans are rising again."

The Daily Mail said things have got to change: "all of us borrowed too much... all of us have got to learn to live within our means".

Brotherly love

Something is going on in Labour ranks, as several papers observe.

The Daily Mirror offers what some might see as a virtual manifesto for a leadership bid by Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Across four pages, he sets out his views on the future and talks about his family. And there is yet more about his home life in the Times magazine.

But just in case there was any doubt about his ambitions, his brother Ed steps in and tells the Independent he is confident David is loyal to Gordon.