Fear and foreboding took hold on wall street yesterday, as the stock market again plunged and investors became convinced that the nation is on the verge of a deep and prolonged recession. The rout continued in Japan, where stocks plummeted in early trading today.

The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is claiming another casualty: American-style capitalism.

THE UK's trade gap in goods remained at a record level in August, as the cheaper pound failed to boost exports, another gloomy economic update revealed yesterday.

Efforts by governments worldwide to stop a slide in financial markets haven't worked yet and the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury may have to seek out more dramatic measures.

One key part of the $700 billion rescue plan requires the government to take "toxic assets" off the books of financial institutions. The Treasury Department has said it will use market mechanisms where possible, such as reverse auctions. But a reverse auction, in which the government agrees to purchase a specific number of assets at the lowest price, is complicated.

Wall street's meltdown is taking a huge toll on U.S. managed mutual funds. Last month, investors pulled a record $72 billion from those funds and looked for safer places to stash their cash.

The financial crisis shows no sign of abating. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 679 points Thursday, and crashed through the 9,000 level for the first time in five years. Why have the U.S. and European rescue measures been unable to stop the slide in financial markets?

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Tokyo suffered the biggest daily drop in two decades after shedding 11%

One crucial element in understanding and fixing the financial crisis is liquidity. The waterfall of cash that buoyed the global economy in recent years has gone dry. Getting capital flowing again is proving to be an enormous, and so far unsuccessful, challenge.