Not to mention the near crisis-state of the German and Italian economies. I forsee bad times for the global economy when 3 of its major 4 players are either in a downward phase of their economic cycle or are about to be so. I fear the UK may be very badly hit due to the unusually long time since the last major economic downturn, high levels of debt (both consumer and government) and its dependancy on the American export market.

On the positive side, the Chinese economy could do well out of this.