Mkuu wa IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, aliwaambia mkutano wa Washington wikendi ya tarehe 11/12 Oktoba 2008: "Wasiwasi unaozidi kuhusu uwezo wa kulipa madeni wa baadhi ya taasisi kubwa za kifedha zenye makao yake Marekani na Ulaya umeisukuma mfumo wa fedha wa dunia hadi ukingoni mwa kuporomoka kwa jumla."

The head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, told a Washington meeting over the weekend of 11/12 October 2008: “Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest US-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown.”.

Mjini London, Gordon Brown na timu yake ya Hazina walikuwa wakifanya kazi saa za ziada pamoja na washauri wao wa benki za uwekezaji, akiwemo Standard Chartered, JP Morgan, Citigroup na Credit Suisse. Wakati wa wiki iliyoishia tarehe 12 Oktoba, timu hizo zilifanya kazi usiku na mchana kutafuta suluhisho la mgogoro huo. Maafisa wakuu kutoka Credit Suisse walianzisha ofisi ya muda katika ukumbi wa kati wa 10 Downing Street, jambo lililoipa maana mpya neno "kufikia korido za madaraka." Tangazo la uokoaji wa benki lilipotolewa asubuhi ya Jumatatu tarehe 12 Oktoba, magazeti ya Uingereza yalisifu "Uokoaji wa Balti." Jina hilo lilitokana na vikao vya usiku sana kati ya timu ya Hazina, mawakili, washauri wa benki za uwekezaji na viongozi wa benki zilizokuwa katika hatari, vilivyolenga kukubaliana makubaliano ya kuokoa benki na mfumo mzima wa fedha, ambapo timu za mgogoro zilipata chakula cha kuchukua cha kari chenye thamani ya pauni 245. Bila kutaka kupitwa na kifurushi cha dola bilioni 700 cha uokoaji wa Marekani ambacho Bunge la Congress lilikuwa limekipitisha wiki iliyotangulia, Brown sasa alikuwa na mpango wake mwenyewe, uliounganishwa kwa haraka katika makubaliano ya alfajiri yaliyofanyika juu ya masanduku ya chakula cha kuchukua.

In London Gordon Brown and his Treasury team were working overtime with their investment banking advisors including Standard Chartered, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Credit Suisse. During the week ending the 12th of October, teams worked around the clock to find a solution to the crisis. Senior executives from Credit Suisse set up a temporary office in the central hallway of 10 Downing Street, bringing new meaning to the term access to the corridors of power. When the announcements were made of the bank bailout Monday morning the 12th of October, British papers hailed the “Balti Bailout”. This was in reference to the late night sessions between the Treasury team, lawyers, investment bank advisors and stricken bank executives to thrash out a deal to save the banks and the system, in which the crisis teams dined on take away curries worth £245. Not wanting to be outdone by the US $700 billion bailout package that Congress had passed the week before, Brown now had his own plan cobbled together in a dawn deal done over the take-away boxes.

Wakati mpango wa dola bilioni 700 ulipopitishwa kwa utata mkubwa katika jaribio la pili na Bunge la Marekani, mpango wa uokoaji wa Uingereza ungefikia angalau pauni bilioni 500 (dola bilioni 850) na kuipeleka serikali zaidi ya kanuni zake za kukopa bila mjadala wowote wa maana bungeni. Licha ya maslahi makubwa binafsi ya kuhakikisha "marafiki zao wa kamari" hawaanguki, benki za uwekezaji ndizo zilizobuni mpango wa uokoaji wa "benki ya uwekezaji". Wakijua vizuri kabisa kwamba Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax Bank of Scotland na nyingine zilikuwa vipande muhimu katika mnyororo mrefu wa domino wa wenye mikataba ya derivative, hakuna suluhisho jingine lililowezekana zaidi ya uokoaji mkubwa unaofanya "chochote kinachohitajika", kama alivyonukuu Kansela Alistair Darling. Lakini pia itakuwa ujinga kudhani kwamba benki kuu za uwekezaji hazikuwa zinatenda kwa maslahi yao wenyewe kwa kuwadhuru wale ambao hawakuwa na bahati kama wao, ambao wangebebeshwa hisa za upendeleo zenye riba kubwa zinazodhibitiwa na Serikali pamoja na kusitishwa kwa bonasi za watendaji na gawio la baadaye. Katibu wa Hazina ya Marekani Henry Paulson, aliyewahi kuwa mkuu wa Goldman Sachs, hawezi kuonekana kama mtu asiye na upendeleo, kwani ndiye aliyeandaa mpango wa uokoaji wa benki wa dola bilioni 700 wa Marekani. Kwa mpango huo, afisa mmoja wa hazina alikiri kwamba takwimu ya dola bilioni 700 ilipatikana kwa kuchukua tu "namba kubwa sana".

While the US$700 billion plan passed with great controversy at the second time of asking by Congress, the UK bailout would total at least £500 billion ($850 billion) and take the government beyond its borrowing rules without any significant Parliamentary debate. Despite enormous vested interests in ensuring that their “gambling buddies” did not fail, investment banks were the architects of the “investment bank” bailout plan. Knowing full well that Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax Bank of Scotland and others were key pieces in the long domino chain of derivative contract holders there was never going to be any other solution but a massive bailout doing “whatever was necessary” to quote from the Chancellor Alistair Darling. But it would also be naïve to assume that the leading investment banks were also not acting in their own interests by nobbling those slightly less fortunate than themselves who would be lumbered with Government controlled high rate paying preference shares and a moratorium on executive bonuses and future dividends. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as a former head of Goldman Sachs could hardly be seen as an impartial figure as he drew up the $700 billion US bank bailout plan. A plan for which a treasury official admitted the figure of $700 billion was calculated by merely adopting “a very large number”.

Ingawa pia ilitayarishwa kwa haraka sawasawa, mpango wa uokoaji wa Uingereza angalau ulikuwa na maelezo ya kuunga mkono kiasi kilichotajwa, ingawa namba hizo hazikuwa za kufurahisha kusoma.

Although equally hurriedly put together at least the UK bailout had some detail to back up the number, not that the numbers made for good reading.