Business week in pictures

The Dubai World crisis entered a new phase. On Monday the Abu Dhabi stock market suffered its biggest one-day fall as the financial shockwaves spread throughout the Gulf Photograph: Dan Kitwood/guardian.co.uk

Labourers sit outside new high rise developments at Dubai's newly developed Marina. Then the Dubai government refused to guarantee the huge debts built up by its conglomerate Dubai World, dashing investor hopes that the latest episode in the global financial crisis might be swiftly resolved Photograph: Dan Kitwood/guardian.co.uk

Men follow the latest developments at the Dubai Financial Market in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Dubai government and the holding company that asked for a halt in its debt payments braced for a tough battle as creditors prepared to fight to recover their money. Hordes of bankers, lawyers and accountants arrived in Dubai mostly from London and the US, as the parties involved started complex negotiations that are likely to take time Photograph: Kamran Jebreili/guardian.co.uk

Canary Wharf in London. Spencer Dale, the Bank of England's chief economist, warned of the risk of a new bubble inflating in frenzied financial markets, as the economy moves into 'renewed expansion' Photograph: Oli Scarff/guardian.co.uk

Two of the UK's biggest building societies announced plans to merge in a move they said would create an organisation with the scale, efficiency and financial resources to provide an alternative to high-street banks. Yorkshire Building Society, the UK's second-biggest society, and Chelsea, the fifth biggest, said their merger would create a company with 2.7 million customers, 178 branches and £35bn in assets Photograph: Andrew Winning/guardian.co.uk

A branch of Bank of America in New York's Times Square. Bank of America has been given the green light to repay all of the $45bn (£27bn) in taxpayers' money that it received under a government bail-out package to avert collapse at the height of the credit crunch Photograph: Mark Lennihan/guardian.co.uk

The troubled carmaker General Motors sent shockwaves through the automotive industry by announcing the abrupt resignation of its chief executive, Fritz Henderson (pictured), in a sign of disharmony over the pace of recovery at America's largest motor manufacturer Photograph: Bill Pugliano/guardian.co.uk

The General Motors factory in Luton. General Motors plans to cut 354 jobs at its Vauxhall van factory in the UK, affecting almost a quarter of the workforce. Consultations were launched over plans for the factory in Luton, which employs about 1,500 workers building Vivaro vans in a joint venture with Renault Photograph: Shaun Curry/guardian.co.uk

Lord Mandelson holds a piece of carbon fibre bodywork during a visit to the Williams F1 headquarters in Wantage. The UK Treasury could be dictating bonus payouts at Royal Bank of Scotland for several years after seizing the power to shape the partially nationalised bank's 2009 bonus pool. But the bank said the move would put it at a 'competitive disadvantage' Photograph: Steve Parsons/guardian.co.uk

President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet prior to an informal meeting of ministers of Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) at the EU headquarters in Brussels. EU finance ministers agreed a new pan-European system of market regulation to tame excesses and take pre-emptive action to head off the kind of financial meltdown of the past 18 months. Britain claimed it had won concessions reducing the likelihood of any financial impact on the UK government and public Photograph: Georges Gobet/guardian.co.uk

A stock pile of house building bricks sits in a builders yard in Manchester. Activity in Britain's flagging construction sector contracted for the 21st month in a row in November, although the rate of decline appeared to be easing Photograph: Christopher Furlong/guardian.co.uk

A branch of Books Etc which has gone into administration. But the EEF manufacturers' organisation said that the end of the credit crunch is in sight, which also urged the government not to choke off the recovery by ending its economic stimulus programme. Photograph: Oli Scarff/guardian.co.uk

JD Wetherspoon is creating 10,000 jobs over the next five years with the opening of 250 new pubs at a cost of £250m. 'Our pubs are extremely popular and we wish to build on their success by opening more,' said Wetherspoon's chairman, Tim Martin Photograph: Tim Ireland/guardian.co.uk

Aer Lingus has vowed to slash hundreds more jobs after talks with unions over its cost-cutting plans collapsed. The loss-making Irish airline has failed to reach agreement on its proposal to change working conditions, reduce staff numbers and cut the pay of those earning over €30,000 (£27,000) a year Photograph: Haydn West/guardian.co.uk