Journalist Mike Philpott takes a look at what is making the headlines in Wednesday's morning papers.
A high profile casualty of the economic downturn appears on the Northern Ireland news pages.
The Irish News calls it the end of an empire as it reports on the collapse of the building company Taggart Holdings with debts of more than £20m.
It has a reminder of the better times with pictures of Van Morrison and Lionel Ritchie, who entertained guests at Michael Taggart's wedding last year.
The paper says that "if a firm as big as Taggart Holdings can collapse, there must be real concerns for the future of smaller companies".
The lead stories in the other local papers focus on very different issues.
The Belfast Telegraph reports on the trial of a man who's accused of murdering his elderly neighbour 20 years ago.
The News Letter carries a warning by First Minister Peter Robinson about a planned Sinn Fein protest at a homecoming parade in Belfast for soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment. He says it could cost Northern Ireland inward investment.
"The government parties have escaped by the skin of their teeth from a trap of their own making"
The Dublin papers report on a major u-turn. The Irish government was forced to retreat on two key elements of the recent budget in the face of a backbench revolt and widespread public anger.
The Irish Times quotes Fine Gael as saying that "the budget was in tatters" after ministers backed down on the abolition of medical cards for the over-70s and decided to exempt those on the minimum wage from a new levy on people's income.
The Irish Independent calls it the great retreat, and says Taoiseach Brian Cowen flies out on a visit to China "leaving behind him a weakened coalition government and huge cracks in the edifice of his own party, less than six months after taking over as leader".
The paper comments that "the government parties have escaped by the skin of their teeth from a trap of their own making".
Another politician in trouble dominates the cross-channel headlines.
The Independent talks of a crisis engulfing the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, after he was caught up in allegations involving a Russian billionaire and his yacht, a leading financier and his villa, a drinks party and a holiday in Corfu.
The Times, which first broke the story on Tuesday, says he's on the rack. The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror agree that he's "fighting for his political life".
Finally, there's a remarkable picture running across two pages in the Daily Mail.
It shows the vaults of gold held by the Bank of England.
It says the image of thousands of bars of the precious metal is hugely reassuring.
And it asks readers: "What would you rather have in your hand right now? A bunch of share certificates or just one of these?"
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