Five years ago today it all started to go wrong.

It seems a life time ago, but it was five years ago today that the French bank PNP Paribas indicated problems regarding the US prime estate market - and the shit and fan started to collide - the rest as they say - is history. We are still trying to recover from the melt down in property prices, the banks are not lending and as the Governor of the Bank of England forecast yesterday - there is still a long way to go. UK growth has again been marked down. These readjustments in the global economy are painful for those on fixed or low incomes, especially in the poorer countries - of south Europe - Greece, Spain and Portugal. Its even harder for the developing countries in Africa, South America, and the Far East. Here in the UK we are being spared some of the pain at the moment under the heady influence of - gold medals at the Olympics. When the caravan has moved onto Rio in a few weeks time and the cold autumn nights are settling in - how will things feel then? In my view waiting for Europe to recover is - fiddling while Rome burns - the future is the new markets in America and the Far East - like Hong Kong and China. So as Norman Tebbit said some years ago - get on our gold Olympic bikes and look for work.