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The London columnist: Arnab Banerjee on the pointless bloodshed in Mumbai

Thu 27, Nov 2008

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London News: City Boy's verdict on Meltdown Monday by Geraint Anderson. Monday, 06 October 2008 Plus: City Boy's guide to surviving the credit crunch

I would say we are in the middle of a global recession – not officially but we can confidently say we are definitely at the beginning of one.

The thing about 1987 was that after about one and a half years the stock market had made up the gains it had lost.

So are the events of today worse than 20 years ago? Well essentially you could argue there’s a chance that we will have a longer and deeper recession than before and certainly worse than people were predicting two weeks ago.

If you don’t have any direct exposure to shares, pensions etc then you will feel the problem more when the recession actually comes into being because then there’s a lot less money around, jobs are being lost etc.

But it’s not all bad. There is a consensus forming that we are all doomed and so that’s what’s happening. Yet stock markets are extremely volatile things. What’s happening now is almost capitulation – when people panic sell. It’s blind, slightly irrational selling, everything is being sold without any discretion. And when that happens it can present a buying opportunity if you’re brave enough.

If the markets fall another five or 10 per cent I would consider it a possible buying opportunity.

Plus: City Boy's guide to surviving the credit crunch