26th September 2008

For weeks those crazy physicists had been trying to bring the world to an end, until him upstairs stepped in and closed down their machinery. But now the financiers on America's Wall Street look as though they're to do the same thing. This will be much more difficult to close down because it involves the way millions of people have been living. The signs were always there: things just couldn't continue. Everyone in the West has been living way beyond their means, based on ever-increasing credit, and governments have been encouraging it for years. Every UK student will tell you: some even have debts amounting to mortgage level by the time they leave university. It's Wall Street 1929 all over again. How the Taliban must be rubbing their hands in glee: the West is doing their job for them in eradicating capitalism at a stroke. Because the US is a super-power, anything they do has an inevitable trickle-down effect to the rest of the West, so what's happening in Europe? Well, the ECB's super-lax policy has already caused credit expansion of 30pc a year in Ireland, and pushed household debt levels to 190pc of GDP. The hangover has now begun in earnest. Apparently next on the EU list for the deepening recession are Germany and Italy. And for France? No-one says much here. I'm personally so glad that I downsized from the UK to France when I did, capitalizing on our assets before it was too late. It's still the good life here where we don't rely much on capital assets. And if all else fails? The sunshine is free, la qualite de la lumiere is free, and what's more, for the first time in our lives we have no mortgage, no debt whatsoever and no credit cards. Hallelujah!