Week in pictures

Sunday: The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, was accused of lacking judgment in predicting a 'run on the pound' Photograph: Johnny Green/PA

Sunday: Expert David Cole predicted 3 million jobs could be lost in a year if General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were allowed to collapse Photograph: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

Monday: Gordon Brown reaffirmed his commitment to tax cuts and welcomed the call from the head of the International Monetary Fund for governments to introduce fiscal stimulus packages Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Monday: Mark Cuban, the internet entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, was charged with insider dealing by the Securities and Exchange Commission Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

Monday: Citigroup, the world's biggest banking group, revealed plans to slash 50,000 jobs and cut costs by as much as 20% Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian

Tuesday: Wolseley, the world's biggest trade distributor of plumbing and heating supplies, announced it was cutting 2,000 jobs in the UK Photograph: Gabriel Szabo/Newscast

Tuesday: Scrabble regained its place as Britain's best-selling game for the first time in decades Photograph: Jane Mingay/PA

Tuesday: The value of superyachts is plummeting amid the credit crunch, it emerged. Photograph: Francois Durand/Getty

Tuesday: Bradford & Bingley's former chairman, Rod Kent, tells MPs the board was 'massively sorry' for the bank's collapse in September Photograph: PA/PA

W is for Woolworths: Woolworths' 99-year history came to an ignominious end, with all 807 shops closing by early January. It fell into administration in November after last-ditch attempts to rescue the chain failed. Deloitte, administrators of the chain famous for its pick'n'mix, confirmed on 18 December that all Woolworths stores would close, with the loss of 28,275 jobs, after failing to secure a buyer for the business as a going concern Photograph: Christopher Thomond/Guardian

Wednesday: Shareholders of Lloyds TSB arrive at a stormy meeting at Glasgow's SECC where overwhelming backing was given to the bank's merger with the ailing HBOS group Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

Wednesday: The bosses of the "big three" US carmakers – Ron Gettelfinger, Richard Wagoner and Robert Nardelli – attended Congress to seek financial aid for the second successive day Photograph: Tim Sloan/Getty

Thursday: Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca announced 1,400 job cuts including the loss of 250 positions over the next five years at its plant in Macclesfield, Cheshire. It came on a day that Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems and Peugeot Citroen also revealed redundancy plans Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

D is for Deflation: As Britain neared the end of 2008, fears of inflation turned to deflation as the weakening economy, lower commodity prices and the cut in VAT combined to limit price increases. This was a stark turnaround from just a few months earlier when the cost of living hit a 16-year high of 5.2% due to spiralling food and energy prices and utility bills, making the Bank of England more reluctant to cut interest rates despite signs that the economy was slowing sharply Photograph: Carl Court/PA

Thursday: Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Tom McKillop and outgoing chief executive Fred Goodwin arrive for a shareholders meeting in Edinburgh where McKillop took personal responsibility for bank's plight Photograph: David Moir/Reuters

Friday: It was revealed that China's Snow lager has become the world's best-seller Photograph: PR/PR

Friday: Car giant Honda announced it was to shut its UK factory in Swindon for two months in February and March in response to falling sales. Photograph: Barry Batchelor/PA