Mitt Romney has ripped into Republican rival Newt Gingrich attacking what he said was the former speaker of the House of Representatives' disgraced exit and subsequent work as a Washington influence peddler.

If Republican voters select Newt Gingrich as the party's 2012 presidential nominee they would be handing President Barack Obama a second term in the White House, the campaign for Mitt Romney claimed last night.

Two former CEOs at mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac yesterday became the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis.

Bank of America was treated too leniently in settlement talks over mortgage fraud at the company, robbing the US taxpayer of billions of dollars of potential compensation, according to a damning report.

This was a good week for bank bashing.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC were among 17 giant banks sued last night by a US government agency, seeking billions of dollars in compensation over their packaging and selling of mortgage bonds in the run-up to the credit crisis.

The former chief executives of the US mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could become the next senior figures facing fraud charges, as regulators pursue wrongdoing in the lead up to the credit crisis.

Withdrawing federal government support for the US mortgage market could wreck the economy and leave US house prices moribund for years, a leading bond fund manager has warned the Obama administration.

Time passes and it heals, or at least it bandages up. Wall Street's banks are raking billions once more, the global economy is sputtering back to life and the chances of wresting control of our destinies from unfettered finance recede with each incremental improvement. Andrew Ross Sorkin wants Too Big To Fail to be a reminder of just how close to the abyss the whole system came last year when Lehman Brothers crashed and AIG crumbled, and a call to arms in favour of reform. Actually, he has written a book that douses the very fury which might lead to radical change. It is a reasonable book, methodically researched and persuasive. There are no villains here, and a good few heroes. So be it.

US Outlook The US is back on Bailout Red Alert, and this time round the federal government looks like it might have to pay to bail out – itself. No one should be surprised to learn that the Federal Housing Administration has found itself facing big losses, what with so many Americans failing to pay their mortgage. Republican politicians scent a scandal of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac proportions, and are already making hay, but this is no time for the Obama administration to go defensive about its support for the US housing market.

Paul Polman, the Dutch chief executive of Unilever, who took the helm in January, is a refreshing change to the sterilised, PR-driven management speak of most bosses. Yesterday, he treated journalists to a series of "Polmanisms" that included calling himself a "sucker"; "easy-squeezy-Japanesey"; "peeling the onion"; "Amsterdam was not built in a day"; and "an early bird does not make a summer". Mr Polman, a "magpies fan" only came a cropper, when he said that Newcastle United were in the "second division", which prompted a PR intervention. Oh well, some things never change.