James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy » 
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related » 
Jeremy Middleton is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of FTSE-200 company HomeServe » 
Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » The news overnight that Lehman Brothers, the top US investment bank, is filing for bankruptcy will send shockwaves not just throughout Wall Street but across global financial markets.
It is truly a seismic development in banking history; the most significant development to date in this most exceptional financial crisis.
At the same time, it has been confirmed that Bank of America is to buy Merril Lynch for $50bn, a deal which will create the world's largest financial business.
The entire landscape of the global banking world has changed dramatically within the space of 24 hours.
It is nothing more than coincidence that such developments should unfold exactly a year to the day since the run on Northern Rock began.
At the time, we were told that the Rock's demise was unparralled in recent banking history. This weekend's events on the other side of the Atlantic put the problems suffered by the Newcastle institution into some kind of context.
Northern Rock was not a one-off lunatic case as it was so readily characterised by the national media at the time. It was simply a victim - albeit one of its own making - of a unique global crisis that has now gone on to claim the scalps of one of the most-respected financial institutions in the world.
One can only speculate as to where this astonishing episode will go next.
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