There's just so much good news around at the moment it's no wonder financial markets
are in good heart.

Something like $700 billion is to be spent by the US in buying up all the
toxic junk off banks' balance sheets, so that has to be good.

It sounds like a lot of money but really, if you say "$700 billion"
quickly, it's not so bad.

Besides, the US debt already stands at $10.6 trillion, so adding just $0.7tn doesn't really look so bad, in context, does it.

It will be many years before the taxpayer has to worry about crystalising
any gains or losses in what's been dubbed The Manure Bank, so no point
worrying about it all now.

Banks, on the other hand, will have huge nasty things that they willingly
bought taken off their hands. So that's great!

And the banks will almost certainly have whacking great tax losses that will help their
income statements for years to come, so that's gotta be just excellent news, too!

London's place as a major international financial centre - the major
international financial centre, by many measures - will be safeguarded
because Gordon Brown is going to outlaw greed. How much better can it get??

And never forget the huge uplift in confidence in the global financial services industry from knowing that the next time they screw up, the taxpayer will wipe away their tears.