It has been terrifying watching the financial crisis growing across the globe.  I really feel for anyone who is coming up to retirement and have had to watch the value of their investments plummet.

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Around the world the banks are being taken into public ownership in order to save economies. I remember all those times the banks made huge profits and awarded great big bonus'es to their trading staff. They managed to work on the financial crisis when the UK crashed out of the ERM --- yes they made 100's of millions selling the Pound short. Well this time they are firmly in the middle but still the public will end up paying.  There should be no bonuses or pay rises for 3-5 years to ensure payback. If they don't like it let them all seek employment in alternative financial institutions as they have done such a great job.

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For the last two years I have been forecasting a smaller version of the crisis for the UK and Eire based on the crazy lending patterns and the meteoric rise in house prices.   In Canada we have been cushioned by their old fashioned lending practices (purely by luck I think).

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In the Daily Telegraph today they touch on the subject of England's population density and the fact that UK population is growing faster than ever since records began. They forecast that the population density will be 405 people for every Km2 Predictably here in New Brunswick the population density is 6.5 people for every Km2.  I am not suprised I was so stressed in the UK, experiments on overcrowded animals show huge increases in stress as the density increases.

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Oh well it is Thanksgiving and I will be saying a prayer at the dinner table for those with pension funds in the global markets and for lower population density.