PLANET BUSINESS

A sideways look at this week in the world of business compiled by Laura Slattery.

$1.1 trillion

- the amount of money wiped off the value of US shares after the bailout was rejected by the House of Representatives on Monday.

$700 billion

- value of the banking bailout that has been approved by the US Senate, making the financial crisis the equivalent of seven Hurricane Katrinas to the US taxpayer.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"A crap sandwich."  

- But one that America will have to swallow, according to Republican representative John Boehner (pictured).

"This crowd can't even make a sausage."

- A Wall Street Journaleditorial despairs. They can't make decent sandwiches, either, apparently.

GOOD WEEK

Barack Obama $700 billion Main Street 

"Step up to the plate," the presidential candidate told the Senate and it appears that he has followed his own advice. Obama rode out the sensitivities of being associated with a bailout for greedy, irresponsible bankers by endorsing the plan in a crucial pre-vote speech to the Senate, while ardent deregulator John McCain stayed schtum. Polls have now shifted in Obama's favour, just one month before America Decides 2008.

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

Help Wall Street and you help Main Street, by averting an economic crisis that would include a complete drying up of credit, according to Obama, George Bush and the other supporters of the $700 billion bailout. But detractors of the plan say it is sacrificing Main Street's taxpayers' money at the altar of Wall Street excess, with US treasury secretary (and former Goldman Sachs chief) Hank Paulson merely ordering up a morally hazardous whip-round for his bonus-pocketing mates.

BAD WEEK

Ireland's popularity in Europe 

As if Irish voters' integration-derailing rejection of the Lisbon Treaty wasn't enough to damage Irish-European relations, the Government has made itself even more unloved by announcing an unlimited guarantee on savings at Irish banks - a move that enraged European officials and prompted frantic telephone calls from EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes's (right) office to the non-Irish banks left out in the cold.