Obviously, it is close "friend" of mine. It has shaped my entire career. I completed my first degree in 1980, and had a hankering for the petroleum industry. The prospects didn't look good, so I deferred for 3 years and completed a Ph.D.

The prospects looked worse, but I persisted. After a few years of training, I was "staff", and then the cuts started. Every year, the price fell, and the cuts went deeper. I played the game of up-skilling to be smarter and better than my cohort (All you have to do, when chased by a man-eating tiger, is to run faster than the next man), but eventually, the Tiger eats EVERYONE.

Finally, with classic miss-timing, I lost my job in 1999. About the same time, the oil market bottomed, and started the most extraordinary climb. Soon, I was in demand again!

What interests me is the irony that it was at the worst moment in the entire century that I finally got laid-off, and that from that point, a booming economy in oil developed. I'm sure that my previous employer would have liked to keep me on and grow business in the boom, but economics can only ever look backwards. It is a VERY poor predictor of the future.

The stock market is going up? Booming?

- a wise man will sell, or at least shift to conservative stocks.

The Stock market has crashed?

- a wise man will buy low, and wait for recovery.

Well, a wise man with deep pockets...