by Calculated Risk on 10/05/2008 03:36:00 PM

Once again Sunday is the new Monday. This week the action is in Europe ...

"Hypo Real Estate has to be stabilized otherwise the damage would be unpredictable."
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck on television, Oct 5, 2008

From the NY Times: Germany Moves to Shore Up Confidence in Economy

Germany’s guarantee of its private savings — worth about 500 billion euros, or more than $700 billion— followed the news that a group of banks had pulled out of a deal to provide 35 billion euros, or $48.2 billion, to rescue the large German mortgage lender, Hypo Real Estate.

The Belgian government, meanwhile, scrambled Sunday to engineer a sale of the Belgian units of Fortis before the start of trading on Monday. The Netherlands effectively nationalized the Dutch operations of the bank on Friday after a joint rescue deal with Belgium and Luxembourg broke down.

In Iceland, where the government seized control of a bank last week, officials were considering more sweeping measures to stabilize finances there as well. And the board of UniCredit, which is based in Milan and also operates in Germany and much of Eastern Europe, met to consider a capital increase after being buffeted by a week of speculation about its solvency.

From Bloomberg: German Government Leads Hypo Real Estate Rescue Talks

And from the WSJ: Governments Scramble to Find Rescue Plans for Hypo, Fortis

And from The Times: Interest rates to drop to 50-year low

Interest rates in Britain will drop to a new 50-year low in the coming months, economists say, as the Bank of England tries to head off a serious recession. The Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) is expected to start the process by cutting rates this week.