Here's a pretty edifice that neatly illustrates this market crisis: it's Canary Wharf Finance II, a skyscraper in London. It's the landlord of Lehman Brothers! Whose rent payments are insured by AIG, which is about to join Lehman in bankruptcy court. It is not a good time to be in the commercial real estate market right now. Just ask Lehman Brothers, whose $30 billion portfolio of commercial real estate backed securities is widely blamed for sowing the seeds of its demise. Politicians like to exploit the links between the market crisis and little exurban tract homes in foreclosure but this thing seems a lot more emblematic: its owner's stock has plunged by half this year as City of London commercial rents have fallen 27% and landlords prepare to compete with another four million square feet that broke ground when everyone in finance thought the money would never go dry.Also it is shaped like a penis. [Bloomberg]