The amount of bad news we’ve had this week is staggering. (If you’ve missed any of it, you can catch up here.)

However, even the mighty black financial cloud hanging over us all has its silver lining.

Here are some of the lighter highlights to emerge from the latest banking crisis:

1. They think it’s called soccer! The American taxpayer is now the main sponsor of Man United, after the US Government bought up 80% of the insurance giant AIG.

2. Ze Germans get it wrong! As the Guardian reported here, “Germany’s dumbest bank” KfW handed over €350m (£275m) to Lehman Brothers two hours before the bank collapsed.

3. Who’s the boss? Rumours are rife about what the new name of the mega-bank of Lloyds TSB/HBOS will be. But as the bank will command a third of the mortgage and savings market, here at the Fool we suggest it should be called ‘LBOS’ – or rather, El Boss. That’s ‘the Boss’ in Spanish for all you uncultured swine out there. We think Alliance & Leicester’s Spanish buyer, Santander, will be particularly happy about this name.

Anyone got any more? Please share with your fellow Fools – we could all do with a laugh this week! Edited at 2008-12-09 15:04:34