There is some really important news developing at the moment.

Just like Bill Clinton said, "Its the economy, stupid". It's the economy of the world, though. Not just that of the USA.

Here are some important ingredients of the story that we all need to really take on board:

1. President Bush has convened the Plunge Protection Team. This is the group that gets together to try to save the stock market in times of major stress. The last time it got together was after 9/11. The fact that it has got together should be like the fire alarm going off in the building for all of us.

2. The Sub-Prime Crisis. This is not just something that is going to affect the US. Look what Anna Schwartz has to say about it. When they say she wrote the book, believe it.  Professor Anna Schwartz co-authored the seminal work about monetarism with Milton Friedman. She says that Allan Greenspan screwed it and that he should admit it.

3. Peak Oil. By now everyone should know what Peak Oil is. Now read this interview with Matthew Simmonds. He is one of the elder statesmen of investment banking in the oil industry. He is saying that we are now beyond the peak. And just in time for demand to go through the roof from India and China.

There is a tendency from people to try to point fingers and apportion blame.

We actually have to get beyond that right now. Pointing fingers now is like being on the Titanic post iceberg and debating whether it was the captain's fault for not posting more lookouts or the company that made the ship's fault for not putting more lifeboats into the design spec. Once you are taking on water that is all quite irrelevant.

Over the last weekend my older daughter told me that she recently saw an interview with David Suzuki where he said that the most important things for us to learn was how to fish and how to preserve fruit. How right he is!