Bernard Hickey details the key news over the weekend in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news that Ireland's political scene went into full meltdown mode over the weekend.
This matters because Ireland's financial and political situation is at the heart of the European debt crisis.
Until now the Irish government and parliament have gone along with European demands to bail out the insolvent Irish banks and to embrace spending cuts to balance the budget.
However, Ireland's voters and taxpayers are starting to realise they are being forced to pay the price for bailing out Irish banks, and in turn, the British and German banks who lent them money.
This is widely seen as politically unsustainable and that is now hitting home.
Prime Minister Brian Cowen forced out a third of his cabinet last week and then over the weekend resigned as Fianna Fail party leader.
This prompted the Greens, who are in coalition with Fianna Fail, to resign from the coalition. This may force an early election (currently the election is scheduled for March 11) and endanger the passing through parliament of a budget bill crucial to the government's bailout deal with the rest of Europe.
Financial markets have yet to react, but this is expected to raise fears again about the sustainability of Europe's debt situation. This again could destabilise global financial markets and make it more difficult and expensive for our banks to borrow on international markets.
Meanwhile, Demographia has released its 7th annual survey of housing affordability in 325 housing markets in Canada, America, Ireland, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
It found (using data up until the end of the September quarter of last year that New Zealand's median multiple of house prices to income was 5.3, which Demographia says remains unaffordable.
Auckland's median multiple was 6.4, Christchurch was 6 and Wellington was 5.5. The multiple for Auckland Tauranga of 6.5 meant it was less affordable than Perth, San Diego and Edinburgh.
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