I’m reading a strange little book this week. It is called The Fall of Northern Rock and is written by an ex-employee of the now nationalised bank called Brian Walters. I’m not quite sure why Walters was the one commissioned to write the book, for the simple reason that he doesn’t seem to have any more inside knowledge into the affair than the rest of us.

So far, the Fed’s magic is working: Sub-prime is leaving primetime.

Gold was very rangebound from the foreign markets through the New York session on Monday, with buyers emerging when it dropped below $880 and sellers equally present when it topped $885, and it stumbled into a finish at $882.20, down $1.80.

Financial commentators around the world keep asking, they want to know if we’ve finally hit rock bottom, after more than $300 billion in losses. In fact, CNBC asks this question so often that it’s starting to sound like bored kids on a long road trip… “Are we there yet?”