As a rollercoaster week on the financial markets comes to an end, we appear to be right back where we started, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

The former IMF economist and Harvard economics professor Ken Rogoff says Ireland is "conspicuously vulnerable" to defaulting on its debt and applying for a rescue from the fund.

Concerns were growing today over the effectiveness of the US government’s US$700bn (€507bn) bank bail-out scheme.

YOUR columnist Noel Whelan (Irish Examiner, July 7) is right to point out that Ireland has been singled out for praise by Tom Friedman, one of the world’s most famous neo-liberal advocates.