Market Mess Impacting Europe

The financial market mess in the U.S. is now having an impact on Europe.

U.K. authorities are working with Bradford & Bingley PLC to consider the firm's future, as the beleaguered lender grapples with a loss of investor and ratings agencies' confidence, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Saturday.

Citing a spokesman, the report said the treasury and the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England are assisting Bradford & Bingley to consider the implications of the recent financial turmoil on the business.

Shares of B&B, which is facing a loss of confidence in the wake of profit warnings and twice restructuring a capital raising plan, have hit new lows in recent days. Its problems were made worse by the recent downfall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and by renewed rating downgrades, calling into question its ability to fund itself, the Journal reported.

You are seeing the impact of the drawing out the negotiations in Congress. It's like two doctors standing over a patient who is bleeding to death and the doctors are arguing over what scalpel to use to save the patient. Hundreds of billions of dollars of economic damage is happening while the dithering continues.