A Domino a rectangular tile with a line dividing its face into two square ends. A popular way of playing with dominos is lining them up end to end and knocking them over. This domino effect is fun to watch when handling the physical tiles but, if it occurs metaphorically in worldwide financial markets it can be most unsettling. Credit market pressures have intensified since the weekend collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., government rescue of the AIG insurance group and fears that other large U.S. financial companies would also be dragged down. In what is being described as part of the biggest bailout package in the U.S. since the Great Depression, the White House is asking Congress to allow the government to takeover US$700 billion in bad debts. This effort to stem further collapses and inject financial capital in order to stabilize the markets would result in raising the legal limit on the US national debt from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion to allow for the bailout. All this is to end the continuing domino effect of financial collapse.