A stich in one save nine

Today's Washington meeting will bring together finance ministers and central bankers from the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Italy and Canada for some collective thinking on the credit crunch and crashing stocks.

They are to be joined by counterparts from other nations, including Australia, Brazil, Russia, India and China, for a gathering of the expanded G20 group.

Also this weekend, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will be holding annual meetings.

Sources say Japan will propose an IMF loan scheme to give countries in financial crisis access to the trillions of dollars in reserves held by Asian and Middle Eastern governments.

Japan and China between them have US$2.8 trillion in reserves, and although Japan's market has been hit by selling, both countries have been relative oases of calm in a world financial crisis that has destroyed banks from Wall Street to Iceland, frozen money markets and drained capital from emerging markets. ( most likely, just overspent.....is it good for our environment?)