Summertime, and the living is evidently
not easy. It was market carnage in early August as trillions of dollars were wiped off the world’s leading stock markets.
Commodities prices plunged and mineral miners and developers are bearing the brunt as investors flee risk and search for safe havens such as gold and the Swiss franc.
No single event has been blamed for the market meltdown, but the euro zone debt crisis and worries that the world’s two largest economies - the USA and China - are slowing have hit confidence.
China is now caught in a bind between slowing the economy to control inflation and the need to keep the economy growing.
Europe is still facing a debt crisis, with debt-heavy Italy in trouble while...