Toby Birch

Articles:

The Markets"Pros & Cons

By Tom Stevenson September 2007 The Daily Telegraph

Before you read further, I should come clean. Like many in my business, I have a propensity to see the glass half empty. It makes me cautious, especially about money, which is sometimes a good thing but just as often not.

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You should also know what I was reading at the weekend, the title of which needs little explanation. The Final Crash by Toby Birch was not, as you might have already guessed, an uplifting read.

It was, however, thought-provoking even if I'm glad it's back on the shelf with The Great Reckoning, Conquer the Crash, The Great Crash 1929, Anatomy of the Bear, Empire of Debt and The Panic of 1907 – I think it was Eliot who said "human kind cannot bear very much reality".

Now you know the context, and as a counterpoint to my recently sunny disposition regarding the outlook for financial markets, here are six things I'm worried about and six things I'm doing about it:

DEBT – The sub-prime crisis in America and the consequent Northern Rock drama over here are signs that prosperity in the Anglo-Saxon world is built on shaky foundations. The explosion in the availability of personal debt on both sides of the Atlantic – £1,300bn in Britain alone – condemns many to a lifetime of financial slavery. Meanwhile, our profligate governments are stealing from our children to buy our approval. No surprise that Gordon Brown wants to go to the country before this chicken comes home to roost.