*The Debatewise Blog
Bloody Monday
That's what they've been calling it, apparently. Yesterday was a very bad Monday for markets, with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. 4,000 office workers leaving Canary Wharf with their belongings in cardboard boxes and thier devastated faces splashed all over the free papers.The latest of the crunch news.But is it really that bad? Office gossip turned to a man spotted in the gym last night...reportedly he was declaring the 'end of the world' was nigh so loudly that the guy exercising next to him had to move. Yes, it's bad. Yes, we're headed for a cold winter. But let's remind ourselves that the economy isn't everything. The press at the weekend was concerned about the suicide rate among high paid lawyers - even the prosperous aren't always happy. So yes let's tighten the purse strings a little, let's guard against excessive consumption, but let's also use this as an opportunity to reasess our values. Those 4,000 suits clutching their cardboard boxes will undoubtedly find it agonising for a while, but perhaps some will wake up one morning, in the not-too-distant-future, and wonder why they were working themselves to the bone only to burn out in their early thirties in the first place...
Sorry not to jump on the 'end is nigh' bandwagon and be yet another prophet of doom, but despite the economic struggles (and the Large Hadron Collider's best attempts to place the earth in a black hole), we are all STILL HERE! Happy Tuesday!