Ms Lamont said the last UK Labour government had saved the banks during the banking crisis and as part of the UK Scotland shared the risks and the rewards of the union.

BBC: Eurozone crisis 1

Although the new Basel 3 global accords on capital adequacy are tough enough to have saved almost all banks during the crisis, a handful of firms worldwide, including HBOS, were outliers that lost far more than the average.

ECONOMIST: British banks

One man told us that he had left his job and his house in this city, a comfortable job and house, to take his five children to live in a tent that he had saved from the last refugee crisis in 1991, thinking they might need it again.

CNN: Arraf: An estimated 400,000 Kurds displaced

We also ask the largest financial firms -- companies saved by tax dollars during the financial crisis -- to repay the American people for every dime that we spent.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama on Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction

"If I am going to name one thing that has saved us, or helped us, from the crisis it is mackerel, " he told CNN.

CNN: Iceland fishing for deal on EU quotas

Ms. SAMINA AHMED (Director, International Crisis Group): To assume that money saved from the national budget, if it wasn't going to be spent on arms, was going to be spent on education isn't necessarily correct.

NPR: Pakistan Uncertain About Relationship with U.S.

They seem to believe that big government saved them from an even greater financial crisis, apparently unaware that the financial industry, along with the health-care industry, were already among the most heavily regulated in America.

FORBES: The Faux Morality of Big Government and Anti-Gouging Laws

Much money could be saved through better management, which would be warranted with or without the ongoing budget crisis.

FORBES: Republicans Mislead Their Base With Handwringing Over Sequester Defense Cuts

Its proponents hope the grandeur of the Burj Khalifa--as it was recently renamed, for the Abu Dhabi president who's financial bailout saved Dubai late last year--will make stakeholders forget the Gulf state's crushing debt crisis.

FORBES: Real Estate