We need Good God Almighty these days.

I'm with you. These days, either news is hazardous to our well being, or humanity is.

so, can I ask what was on the news in your part of theworld? Whatever it may be, lets pray about it together.

It was simply one bad story after another about economic collapse and related problems. Just grim news. And the worst thing was that I could think of any number of other problems the world is facing -- from war to climate change -- that didn't even rate a mention because the economic collapse is so bad.

Not listening to the news sounds good, but I need to pay attention to a lot of it for my job, so it's not really an option for me.

It is very difficult. I am meeting so many people that are ver stressed out over the whole situation. It is the down side of the "global village" concept of today. Because the business world is linked so much internationally it does not take long before the bad news affects people through out the world.

The most obvious issue is financial. However, hidden below that is the whole matter of social interacting. Because most of our woken hours are usually at work there are many who may feel cut noff from work based friendships.

For the same reason, there are some who never think about interests beyond the work field. Once that is gone they will often sit and vegetate on the problem as there is nothing else they have thought of. The result is an emotional down ward spiral. It would be worth while for all of us, even while we have secure jobs, to find some other interest to ensure we do not have such a big change come retirement ....... or redundancy.

On the banking issues related to this blog, I understand that Australia have stepped in to guarantee a large percentage of money in banks (is it 100%? ). In the UK, The government have decided to guarantee £50,000 per person per financial institution. Therefore, if one shares cash amongst differring banks it is possible to have a fairly large guaranteed sum above that basic guarantee.

Has any of the other nations represented here taken any similar steps?

The US is temporarily insuring up to $250,000 in bank accounts these days. Previously it insured $100,000. However, since banks are paying so little interest, a lot of ordinary people put their money in riskier investments that weren't insured.

I don't know about other countries. It would be interesting to know what they do.

I love your bio! off topic, I know, but your bio is very inspiring! I hope you blog about your black belt!

Thanks, aim. I'll try to get around to posting about martial arts subjects at some point. I do blog -- sporadically -- on self defense issues at Taking Care of Ourselves.