Here is Briefing.com's weekly wrap:

The week that was on Wall Street won't ever be forgotten as it has now has a distinctive place in the annals of stock market history.

The major stock averages plunged in dramatic fashion amid of torrent of concerns about the economic outlook and a prevailing sense of impatience, and uncertainty, about government efforts to unclog the credit market, which is the engine that drives economic growth.

Sadly, it isn't hyperbole to say the stock market crashed this week. Granted it didn't have that fast-crash sensation like Oct. 19, 1987, when the S&P 500 plummeted 20.5% in a single session. No, this was more of a slow-motion crash with the S&P dropping 3.9% Monday, 5.7% Tuesday, 1.1% Wednesday, 7.6% Thursday and 1.2% Friday.

The relentless selling pressure was said to be a byproduct of forced liquidation by hedge funds and mutual funds needing to honor redemption requests, efforts by investors to meet margin calls, and plain old short-selling by bearish-minded participants.

The most remarkable aspect of the week is that the selling persisted despite another litany of initiatives announced by central banks, and governments around the globe, that were aimed at bolstering liquidity and restoring confidence in the banking system.

The seminal event in that regard was a coordinated rate cut announced Wednesday by six central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. The Fed for its part cut the fed funds and discount rates by 50 basis points to 1.50% and 1.75%, respectively.
This move by the Fed followed an action Monday to double the outstanding balances of its Term Auction Facilities to $900 billion and an announcement Tuesday of a new Commercial Paper Funding Facility that will provide a liquidity backstop to U.S. issuers of commercial paper.

The commercial paper market is where many companies obtain the financing that enables them to run their daily operations. It is traditionally one of the safer markets, but it had seized up of late on concerns about counterparty risk.

Elsewhere, Germany guaranteed all bank deposits, England put forth a plan to inject as much as $87 billion in new capital into eight, major banks, the Russian government said it will invest in Russian stocks and bonds, and the Chinese central bank lowered its key lending rate.

Iceland, meanwhile, took control of its largest bank, but then made the startling admission that it is at risk of national bankruptcy.

Each of these efforts underscored the global nature of the financial crisis and how it is going to take a global approach to fix things.

Mindful of the latter point, the meeting of G7 ministers in Washington on Friday was widely talked about.