It Is not just our economy

The mess may start here but it has spread elsewhere. (Another older draft)

Spain drops reassuring gloss as crisis deepens - Telegraph:

"Spain's finance minister Pedro Solbes has stunned the markets with an admission that his country faces the worst economic crisis in its history as the full effects of the property crash spread through the economy.

'This crisis is the most complex we have ever lived through given the plethora of factors on the table at the same time,' he told Punto Radio in Madrid, breaking with past efforts to put a reassuring gloss on events.

Mr Solbes said the Madrid bourse had suffered an 'earthquake', crashing 27pc since the start of June. He blamed the toxic cocktail of high oil prices, the global credit crisis and the sharp slowdown in the key export markets of North America and Germany."