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CNN Money – They pray for recessions and smile a little wider when a company climbs onto its death bed.

Welcome to the world of distressed, or so-called "vulture" investors, an often-ignored corner of the market that has increasingly taken center stage as more businesses slip into bankruptcy or look to shed assets.

There has been no shortage of corporate ruin lately. Lehman Brothers, which sent a shockwave across the financial system. Outside of the banking sector, electronics retailer Circuit City and media giant Tribune Co both filed for bankruptcy.

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Tags: assets, banking-sector, bankruptcy, center stage, circuit city, cnn, cnn money, death bed, investors, lehman brothers, media giant, recessions, ruin, shockwave, tribune-co, vulture

Reuters – Nations from Europe to Australia rushed out plans on Sunday to shore up their banks, trying to halt a markets crash with pledges to back lending, buy stakes in financial institutions and take other emergency steps.if(window.yzq_d==null)window.yzq_d=new Object(); window.yzq_d['Yl9NCdG_Rvc-']=’&U=13fiorehq%2fN%3dYl9NCdG_Rvc-%2fC%3d632663.12996380.13209191.6227634%2fD%3dLREC%2fB%3d4577807%2fV%3d1′; 

European leaders meeting in Paris said their line of attack would help halt the chaos that has frozen credit markets, the lifeblood of the financial system, redrawn the world’s financial industry and threatened a global recession.

"I believe that we will see over the coming few days worldwide action that will make people see that confidence in the banking system can be restored," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters.

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Tags: british-government-officials, european-exchange, global-asset-allocation, halo, institutional-marketing, investment-arm, private-ownership, ruin, savings-and-loan-crisis, treasury, two-thirds

Interactive Investor – Investors are cheering the temporary ban on shorting financial stocks which came into play on Friday morning.

The Financial Services Authority introduced the four-month freeze on profiteering from falling share prices after the markets closed last night in a bid to stem the chaos in the financial sector. The new rules, which cover 29 shares, prevent investors from taking out new short positions or adding to existing ones in all publically listed financial firms.

Investors currently shorting more than 0.25% of a financial company’s shares have until Tuesday to either close their position or declare it to the regulator.

Short-sellers have been blamed for sending share prices in the financial sector plummeting in recent weeks with HBOS the latest victim of speculators looking to make a quick buck from its demise.

Hector Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, says: "While we still regard short-selling as a legitimate investment technique in normal market conditions, the current extreme circumstances have given rise to disorderly markets. As a result, we have taken this decisive action, after careful consideration, to protect the fundamental integrity and quality of markets and to guard against further instability in the financial sector."

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Tags: ambiguity, ameriprise, executive-suite, index-funds, market-abuse, medallion, percent-stake, propp, ruin, september-11, world-equity