After the wars

the problem is that clearing bankers are totally different to investment bankers and never the twain should meet.

Brown talking about international regulation is just such a waste of time, it ain't going to happen. The more he refers to the global economy does he not realise how ridiculous he appears. Did we not trade with China over a hundred years ago, did we not have an Empire? India, African states, Australia, Canada...Did we not have a Navy to give us control of our trade routes, did we not have gunboat diplomacy, arbitrage dealing of buying in one country and selling in another (SA Gold companies), bills of exchange, forward contracts, factoring, all existed long ago, as for Certificates of Deposit, Foreign Exchange... do not allow yourselves to be duped, this is not the first global downturn, this is just the latest of many. Look at what happened after the Napoleonic Wars...