The rout of global financial markets continued last week and Australia copped the worst of it: hit by a triple or even a quadruple/quintuple whammy. The extent of the impact is exemplified by the free fall of the Australian dollar - at its worst, an 8.8 per cent drop in less than a week, and an even worse performance on the stock market - down 9.5 per cent. At its lowest, the S&P/ASX 200 was only 1.8 per cent away from entering an official bear market, as a result of the fall from its peak of 5,001 points, only a few weeks ago.By contrast, the euro finished the week up against the US dollar and its major stock markets experienced relatively modest declines of only 3 per cent to 4 per cent, at their low points. As for the Dow Jones Industrial Index, it fared only slightly worse, falling by 5.2 per cent at the close on Thursday.The Australian stock market started the week burdened with the continuing fall-out from the announcement of the resources super profits tax, two weeks earlier, and concerns over tightening monetary policy in China to slow Chinese economic growth. The latter had already impacted commodity prices, which kept on plunging as uncertainty grew about the implementation and effectiveness of the €750 billion eurozone stabilisation plan.It remained unclear whether the support package would be delivered, with the German parliament not voting on its share (the largest, at €148 billion) of the package until the end of the week (it was approved, just, on Friday). And even if the package is approved, how will it be implemented? The austerity measures to be applied across the eurozone could ensure a lost decade in Europe. Germany had a list of penalties/austerity measures that was presented to a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, on Friday. (Naturally, no decisions were made at the meeting other than there being agreement on the need for tougher sanctions and enforcement of the limitations on budget deficits to avoid another Greece. It was reported that there was broad support for most of Germany's proposals, including a push for a global Tobin tax. There were mixed reports on the level of support for 'orderly insolvencies'.)  Added to this was Germany's surprise unilateral ban on naked short-selling of eurozone sovereign debt and CDS, along with the shares of some German financial institutions. The announcement of the ban after European markets had closed on Tuesday, led to a rout in the affected securities on Wednesday, along with a plunge in the euro.Not surprisingly, the move was interpreted by markets as both panic on the part of the Germans and another failure to co-ordinate action with other eurozone governments. And just to underline this, France promptly announced that it would not be taking similar action.However, Germany's unilateral ban on naked short-selling makes some sense when it is considered that Germany wants to have 'orderly insolvencies' as the ultimate sanction to be applied to eurozone delinquents - such