Why housebuilders are demanding state hand-outs… More hilarity in the housing industry this weekend. Builders are now demanding state help. As housing sales have collapsed, the construction industry faces mass redundancies, while house builders themselves have seen their share prices dive.

Apparently, there’s just no stopping stocks. They just keep on trucking higher as investors forget about the recent troubles in the financial sector and focus on Merrill Lynch’s note that ‘credit markets may be “past their worst”’.

There’s been a return to risk aversion overnight, as some news from the United Kingdom has reignited the fears that the banks may still be sitting on a ton of bad debt… Of course, as Pfennig readers, you already know this…

“Captain, we’re running out of fuel!” “Don’t panic! Just burn up what little we have. And burn it faster!” Gordon Brown, crisis buster extraordinaire, has a solution to the energy crisis. Are you ready?

It was the usual doom and gloom when I opened the paper this morning. The Bank of England predicts a protracted slowdown. It’s revised its growth forecast for next year to 1.5%, down from a 2009 forecast of 2.8% made last year.