British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been enjoying a much-needed boost to his status and popularity as he watches country after country adopt the same pattern as Britain in propping up their struggling banking sectors.
But preventing widespread bank collapse is of course only one piece of the jigsaw of disaster that now threatens the global economy. Money and credit flows are the lifeblood on the whole economic system, and when they become infected the repercussions are felt everywhere. Many of them are unpredictable.
The most immediate and painful reaction as the huge edifice of paper credit crumples can already be seen in the shriveling of trade and markets worldwide, and therefore the corresponding shrinkage and cutbacks in production by suppliers to those markets wherever they may be.