“If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; . . . If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same . . . Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”

  —  (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling

If ever there was a time for Central Banks and governments to listen to Kipling, now is the time.  You can’t stop a panic – let the market wake and and realise they are over-reacting. 

If the market drop is the reason you are nationalising banks, stop and think about it.  Focus on bank liquidity instead, and inter bank confidence.

London bloodbath after panic selling sweeps Asia | The Times

London shares dropped more than 400 points in early trading this morning after a seventh day of devastating falls on Wall Street triggered panic selling across Europe and Asia. Within minutes of opening, the FTSE 100 index fell almost 10 per cent to its worst level since 2002, but within 30 minutes shares staged a mild rally which left the index of Britain’s leading companies off 253 points at 4050.

Bank shares took the brunt of the pain as markets gyrated with Barclays off 15.6 per cent, and HSBC down 4.3 per cent. BP fell 8 per cent and Royal Dutch Shell was off 5.9 percent as crude fell 4.6 per cent to a new 12-month low below $84 a barrel. The economic slowdown threatens to weaken demand for oil and some Opec members want to cut production at their November meeting to shore up prices.