The embarrassment has been acute, the political pressure to staunch the financial bleeding intense.Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, has already come close to putting her job on the line if the NHS does not return to financial balance in 2006-07.
Since then he has staunched the financial bleeding, but has also acquired a nervous tic, a chipped tooth (from getting hit in the mouth by the zipper on his father's pants as they flew towards the dirty laundry bin) and stress induced eczema (diagnosed by Google).
Francis Baring became a director of the East India Company and was a staunch supporter and financial advisor of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, who made him a baronet in 1793.
As a staunch political and financial supporter of the Algerian independence movement, Nasser considered the country's independence to be a personal victory.
Europe is not turning on the money tap — not much anyway — but even the staunchest supporters of financial rectitude are giving in to the need to spend at least some money to make some money.
Obama chose not to nominate Warren allegedly because he believed she would not be confirmed by the Senate and because of staunch opposition from the financial industry.
Not surprisingly, he has been a staunch supporter of the financial services industry, and is widely credited with playing a key role in securing passage of the TARP after its initial defeat.
Even Sandy Weill, the architect of the financial services conglomerate Citigroup and staunch campaigner in the 1990s for the rewriting of the Glass-Steagall Act, can change his mind.
Britain's top financial regulator has launched a staunch defence of pension saving as a key part of preparing for old age, countering comments by the Bank of England's chief economist that the best bet for a comfortable retirement is to invest in property.
Data released this week showed that new and existing American home sales are still falling.The need for further rescue packages at Citigroup and AIG, the insurance giant, illustrates that the bleeding in the financial sector has yet to be staunched.
