Asian Chemical Connections

As if you needed to reminded, be aware of the conmen who might try and sell you something you don't need in 2009 as everyone tries to find a way through the crisis.

There could be more contradictory methods to manage volatility and financial problems out there than unsold tonnes of benzene.

And perhaps something akin to a Ponzi - or maybe what should from now on be called a Madoff Scheme - will emerge.

I had to laugh at reading of the joke prospectus sent out to London investors during the 1820s stock market boom, involving a plan to rescue gold and other valuables left at the bottom of the Red Sea by the Egyptians.