There is apparently a “great private banking myth” out there.

The internet is playing wrecker ball to the once robust walls of the publishing business. A subject we’ve commented on before as newspaper subscriptions slide relentlessly taking circulation and advertising revenues with them.

This one started in the Far East early in their trading day yesterday and ended at 4:00 p.m. New York time. Silver didn’t fare much better, but it did try to rally a couple of times during New York trading hours on the Globex…but the boys were having none of that.

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.

Canada’s big board started the week off by inching forward, while the junior bourse once again failed to follow during Monday trading on the Canadian markets.

Wading through more tales of woe from the high street… JJB Sports saw profits fall 28%; it’s closing 72 stores and laying off 800… The nation’s indebted…1m have an average £25k in unsecured debt…we find some good news today in the unemployment numbers.

Global growth will slow to 3.7% in 2008, the International Monetary Fund announced yesterday (Wednesday), in its most recent World Economic Outlook. There is also a 25% chance of a global recession should economic growth fall below 3% in 2008 or 2009.

Total losses from subprime are likely to be near $1trn says the IMF. It’s a trillion…give or take…

The doves are out in force. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets tomorrow, and an interest rate cut is most definitely on the agenda.

More bottoms than a burlesque show…rebounds that turn even base metals into precious ones.The fuzzy edges of a moral system…China! What to make of it? An intriguing investment – in Iceland…the crisis of the countryside arrives in the city…and more!