The explosion in government deficits through the crisis has created worries about sovereign debt default from countries in the European Union, writes CNN anchor / correspondent Richard Quest, in his exclusive column on domain-b

Once More unto the Breach dear friends…once more.

The battle cry could be heard reverberating around the global stock markets as again investors looked and could see nothing but fog and confusion. The rhetorical question could be heard repeatedly: ''was this a correction or was this something more.'' Some had no fear and even used the word that few speak of…The dreaded B word re-appeared to describe the market. Bear market.

There was good cause for worry. The Dow lost 3.6 per cent on Thursday alone….and was down more than 4 per cent for the week. European major indices on average lost more than 3 per cent. A reading of Saturday's Financial Times gave headlines such as ; '''Smell of fear'' pervades huge sell off' 'Risk appetite evaporates as confidence wanes'. Everywhere there is doom and dismay and reasons for this are everywhere too.

The explosion in government deficits through the crisis has created worries about sovereign debt default from countries in the European Union.

Austerity is the economic policy of governments from Britain to Greece and beyond as cutbacks are implemented. In the US the financial reform bill is inching closer to becoming law. This will leave no part of the US financial industry untouched. Sarbanes-Oxley may seem like child's play compared with this massive, fundamental piece of financial re-engineering.

Topping off the list has to be what many regard as Germany's stunning piece of political ineptitude by taking the markets by surprise with its ban on naked short selling. This is even more remarkable since the European Union finance ministers (ECOFIN) had been meeting that morning without even a whisker of mention of what was to come. Whatever the merits of the ban might be, pale compared with the failure to consult other Eurozone members first!