Crisis, what crisis? An upbeat David Frost, director-general of the British Chamber of Commerce, reminds us there is commercial life beyond the hysterics of Canary Wharf trading screens.

Now the days are not only longer but finally starting to warm, what happened in the financial world this week? Well, on Monday Mervyn King stepped up to the plate and offered a deal for UK banks. They could swap assets of unknown worth mortgage-backed securities for those of known worth government bonds .

You’ve got to check this out. If you want the thrill and potential profits of Forex trading but without any of the drawbacks please take a few minutes to read this.

Remember the 1970s? “It was the decade of strikes, electricity shortages and piles of rotting rubbish on the street,” recalls a BBC report. Your editor is old enough to remember homework by candlelight, the three-day week and grim-faced militant union leaders such as Arthur Scargill barking pay demands every night on the TV news.

Eight years into a new millennium, it feels like the end of an era. The end of the eras of cheap credit, cheap food and cheap energy. Will they be back? Even Pollyanna might swallow hard before giving the nod to that one.

Inflation pressures should abate with slowing growth unless there’s a supply shock.

On a personal level, it was more of a food crunch than a credit crunch…

Monetary policy “walking a tightrope”…1,300 jobs go in the Square Mile… Britain’s second largest bank to go cap in hand to shareholders for a large dollop of cash..? Rice hits a record $1,000 a tonne…and one in ten face that old wealth destroyer from the early ‘90s: negative equity. So where to start..?

The credibility of Libor is in doubt so interbank lending rates could be higher than reported. If estate agents were woodworm, many a British high street would complain of infestation.