The speculation was that Merck wanted to force concessions out of Bayer, trading control for choice businesses or patents from Bayer or Schering.

ECONOMIST: Two historic German drugs firms scrap for control of a third

"The good thing is that nothing went really seriously wrong--apart, of course, from the economy at large, " says John Bates, general manager of Progress Software, which sells trading risk control systems.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Investment banks are no longer as confident as they once were of their ability to control trading risks.

ECONOMIST: The trader��s lament