Year after year, I follow the global economic situation by reading The Economist, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal. I am at it every single day, and I write about it from time to time, but I have no-one to talk to. To the best of my understanding, the situation is catastrophic, but I may be deluded. It was thus a joy to talk to Vladan Jovanovich today. Heading a company in the City of London that is among a handful of independent traders surviving the global tumult, he knows what he is talking about. First hand, too. To my relief, he agrees with me wholeheartedly. The situation is no less than catastrophic. We are facing worse than a depression reminiscent of the one in the Thirties, let alone another recession. Of course, my relief concerns only the common outlook, not the outlook itself. The only remaining puzzle is that the newspapers I read every single day are nowhere close to the pessimism I share with Vladan. That is, who is deluded here?