North County Times – The stock market is retreating, credit markets are squeezed and many corporate earnings are diving. But one piece of the mangled U.S. economy is making an improbable comeback: the dollar.

As the financial meltdown clobbers world economies from South America to Asia, investors desperate for safe assets are plowing money into the battered buck —- helping it snap a six-year slide and reclaim its long-held status as a stable asset during rough times.

"The dollar has become the safe-haven play," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at Global Forex Trading in New York. "It’s a pretty monumental move we’re seeing" and" reflects a "crisis of confidence."

While the U.S. economy by no means is showing signs of a recovery, Lien said other countries are "just beginning to feel the magnitude of the global slowdown, whereas the U.S. is maybe three-quarters of the way through. "What everyone is beginning to realize is that, yes, the U.S. is in trouble. But it’s also much further along (in the crisis) and probably closer to stabilizing than Europe and other regions," Lien said.

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Telegraph.com.UK – Sources close to Mrs Lagarde said that she had called the US Treasury Secretary – a close personal friend – well before the ailing bank’s collapse imploring him to act, but he chose not to.

Lehman Brothers’ demise sparked the biggest shake-up on Wall Street in decades and sent shock waves around the world that triggered a massive bailout plan in Britain and Europe.

Mrs Lagarde – attributed with playing a key role in brokering a bailout deal among G7 finance ministers in Washington last weekend – dubbed Mr Paulson’s decision to let the bank go under "horrendous" as it triggered panic in markets and banks to the brink of a 1929-style financial meltdown.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, she warned that the world’s hedge funds could be the next institutions to be hit by the financial turmoil.

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