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London, Paris and Frankfurt followed cheerfully on in early trading, led by the banks and, in London, more good sales figures from Whitbread.

Fresh from (more or less) preventing a global banking crisis, governments, led in this case by incoming US president Barack Obama, India and China are planning concerted action to boost their economies.

Obama told NBC at the weekend that he was going to forget all about the ballooning budget deficit and launch a massive programme of public works, reminiscent of the Roosevelt New Deal of the 1930s, to create two and a half million jobs and rescue industrial America.

At the same time US legislators are putting the final touches to a deal to pump an initial $12bn (£8bn) into the bankrupt US car industry in return for effective government control.

India has announced a $4bn boost to the economy (it doesn't sound much but it buys a hell of a lot on the sub-continent) including a cut in interest rates while the Chinese government, enigmatic as ever, is believed to be planning a package of measures to boost domestic consumption.

China is sitting on trillions of dollars thank to its export boom, fuelled in part by its artificially low currency and, with the West in particular no longer buying, may allow its currency to rise which will mean that Chinese consumers can buy more.

At the same time the US Federal Reserve has already started buying billions of Treasury Bonds, in effect its own money.

The effect of this is to pump money into the markets as it lowers the interest rates on these securities as the government doesn't need to attract so many commercial investors.

The Bank of England, in its cautious way, is likely to do the same next year; something which will please the UK government as it needs to sell hundreds of billions of its own bonds to finance its borrowing.

Such activities used to be called ‘printing money' back in the high inflation era of the 1970s to the 1990s but, with deflation looming, nobody's too worried about that just as the moment.

Of course we've seen share prices rises lead to a succession of ‘dead cat' bounces all year but the current rally (Wall Street rose 3% on Friday reversing earlier losses following a big rise the previous week) may have more energy in it.

With interest rates heading to zero buying equities for their dividends suddenly looks an attractive bet.

HSBC to double UK mortgage lending

Bank chiefs are due to receive another of their by now regular wiggings from chancellor Alistair Darling and business secretary Peter Mandelson today.

The Government reckons they're not passing on rate cuts as eagerly as they should and not lending enough to small businesses and homeowners.

The banks say, hang on a minute we're supposed to be rebuilding our balance sheets and only lending to people who might be able to pay it back (unlike the last few years).

I doubt that HSBC chief Stephen Green will submit himself to such an indignity but whoever he sends to the meeting can rest easy as HSBC has just said it plans to double its UK mortgage fund to £15bn.

HSBC has not had to avail itself of the Government's capital handout, despite losing a packet on sub-prime mortgages in the US.

It's now aiming to increase its share of UK mortgages to 15% from its usual share of around 5% and this fierce competition just might prompt some of the others to instruct their managers to ease off a bit.

With bank rate so low even the Libor rate (the rate at which banks lend to each other that's currently rather higher) still allows for the provision of mortgages at rates close to or even below what they were before the mortgage market dried up earlier this year.

The Government could do something practical to help by instructing Northern Rock, now in public ownership, to move away from its current scorched earth policy (running down its mortgage book dramatically) and start lending again.

Newspapers face perfect storm

Advertising volumes and rates are tumbling on both sides of the Atlantic, leading to fears over the future of many big media players.

Newspapers appear to be in the worst position, having to cope with this and the migration of advertising to the web.

Even if they own their own big websites, which most do, the rates they can charge are nothing like as high as in the good old days of print-only.

Some big national titles, like the Mirror newspapers, have compounded the problem by getting into bed with local newspaper companies, in its case Trinity.

Locals are suffering even more than nationals as they are more dependent on classified, in particular ads for houses and cars.

If anything, it's worse in the US and stories abound that the mighty Tribune Company, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, might file for bankruptcy.

Tribune went private last December in an $8bn deal that saw US property investor Sam Zell take control.

But there are fears that its rapidly diminishing cash flow cover will mean that it's in breach of its terms with its lenders.

Tribune also owns a string of local TV stations plus the Chicago Cubs football team and its famous stadium Wrigley Field.

Usually assets like these would have other media magnates, such as Rupert Murdoch, salivating.

But even Rupert is pulling in his horns these days.

Germany in the doghouse

German chancellor Angela Merkel has been left off French president Nicolas Sarkozy's guest list for an EU confab about the economy, reflecting frustration that Germany has stood apart from attempts by other EU countries, including the UK, to reflate their economies.

On the face of it Germany's stance is rather peculiar but the Germans still recall the painful consequences of absorbing East Germany after the Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago and have clearly decided that financial conservatism suits them best.

But the German government will get its chequebook out soon enough if its big engineering companies, chiefly the carmakers, start to struggle.