Banks haven’t exactly been covering themselves in glory recently. The sector has gone from one pratfall to another ever since Northern Rock first warned it was in trouble last summer.

If you were running an oil company, what would your number one priority be? Jacking up production, right? I mean, prices have just shot up from $50 to $120. And you know that whatever you produce, you’ll sell. Can it get any simpler than that? Whatever it takes, push product out.

In July 2006 I made a prediction: property prices in India will decline by 25% to 40% over the next 9 months. By July 2007, property prices had increased somewhere in the region of 20% to 30%. So much for my prediction.