MONDAY

It's the fall all right. Irish shares drop by €6.5bn, the biggest plunge in a quarter of a century. Anglo Irish Bank is a huge casualty as share values fall by 46%.

The begging bowl held up to the US congress by the Treasury remains empty as the House of Representatives rejects the plea for that $700bn bail-out. One congressman, on being asked if George Bush looked impotent, said, "The president needs a shot of political Viagra."

Policy makers still fail to explain in simple language what the financial crisis will eventually mean for Joe Public, but the gloomy facial expressions of Mary Hanafin on 'Prime Time' and George Lee on the news say it all.

TUESDAY

A big €400m security blanket is the unprecedented solution for collapsing banks from the government with two Brians. Guaranteeing all deposits and borrowings for six Irish banks until 2010, minister for finance Brian Lenihan says, "I do not see any hazard or exposure to the taxpayer from the decision."

Vanessa Redgrave could perhaps articulate the mood of the moment. In Dublin for the theatre festival, she is described as "the most emotionally expressive actor about a certain kind of extreme feeling". Her 'Year of Magical Thinking' brings some calm amidst somersaulting financial news elsewhere.

wednesDAY

In a Champions League group game against PSV Eindhoven, Robbie Keane gives his trademark somersault after finally scoring a goal for Liverpool and, as only a footballer can express himself, the Dublin-born striker says he's delighted he's chased "the monkey off his back".

Brian Lenihan tries to get UK chancellor Alistair Darling off his back over the exodus of British funds now being deposited in Irish banks. Lenihan is told "in no uncertain terms" that the scheme is "a problem for the UK". Anglo Irish Bank, in the doldrums on Monday, now has one of its busiest days ever, besieged by UK savers transferring money.

The man with the plan, according to himself, is British Conservative Party leader David Cameron, who evokes the economic reform of former leader Margaret Thatcher. Although her name is toxic, even among some Conservatives, Cameron refers to her as a "radical".

The sums are worked out: the €400bn Irish banks guarantee represents €92,000 for every Irish citizen. "Irish taxpayers could be paying for this for a generation," says one analyst, as unemployment increases to its highest rate since 1998.

Hard-up consumers haven't resorted to heating up leftovers. Yet. Figures show sales at 500 Irish and British outlets of Domino's pizza chain have risen by a record 17.8% in past 13 weeks. And that's a lot of dough.

Seán Dunne's proposed tower in Ballsbridge, Dublin, may never rise, if residents get their way. At a Bord Pleanála hearing, residents' counsel Colm Mac Eochaidh finishes the case for the opposition with a final salvo – "Ballsbridge is not Knightsbridge."

thursDAY

… and neither is Dundrum. So Peaches Geldof's sulky expression suggests at her House of Fraser photoshoot. Her fee is £5,000, presumably for the talent of bearing an oddly memorable name. Arriving late, she refuses to DJ (as hired) and walks off in a huff before anyone can tell her
that 'wild child' image (yawn) is so very last season.

At least Bob's daughter's behaviour is not referred to the Financial Regulator. An email circulated by the son of Irish Nationwide boss Michael
Fingleton earlier in the week to employees in a global investment bank is sent to the regulator by Brian Lenihan because of anti-competitive practices. In the contentious email, Michael Fingleton jnr says the building society "represented the safest place to deposit money in Europe".

FRIDAY

Artist Marc Quinn reckons the safest place to invest is in Kate Moss. The model, reckoned to be worth her weight in gold in flogging frocks and face products, is immortalised in a gold sculpture in the British Museum. 'Siren' depicts Moss with her legs behind her head, with only a thin strip of underwear preventing us seeing what she had for breakfast. When Moss was shown this tasteless work, with an estimated value of $10m, she apparently "loved it". It is displayed alongside statues of classical Greek goddesses. As yet, none of their heads or arms have fallen off with the affront.

"Hi there, can I call ya Joe?" Lordy lord, if it ain't the darndest thing, but aw shucks, even a simple ole Main Streeter who never did any fancy book larnin' can come within a heartbeat of being US president. In the debate with opposing vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden Jnr, Sarah Palin exceeds expectations. Given that expectations were so low to start with, it's hardly a victory. She delivers her down-home phrases in customary nasal, snow-drift honk. That's what we get for so loving Frances 'Heck, no' MacDormand in 'Fargo'.