So, having made the trip from Durham to London, what is the first impression of the capital, since last time - it is one of lines of stationary taxi cabs waiting in a long queue for fares in a line that extends for a couple of hundred yards on the street, upstream of one of the two major train stations. I walk 20 minutes to my hotel past lines that seem, at time to be barely moving, and with cabs that, on average, contain a single passenger glancing worriedly at their wrist watch. It is definitely worse than New York.

The town is still lively, the restaurant where we had dinner (the one with wait staff in black kilts) had a full booking until late in the evening. The BBC show, and the topic in general did not engender any level of serious concern. The restaurant was interesting in that, for a while it was a relatively ethnic Scottish place where one could order haggis, neeps and tatties. Now, however, as it becomes more of a market presence, the flavor is moving toward the norm, that melage of food that, while good or excellent in quality is no longer so specifically tied to a region.

I had a dish made up, originally, from pork bellies. I can remember, from a movie that I cannot, the opportunities that pork belly futures once had. And so, tonight I ate some. The point is, I fear, a wee bit tenuous but is this. We can get quite excited about trading in the market, as some of the recent comments have shown, but when the day is over, somebody, somewhere will be eating that pork, or using that oil, and we reach a "rubber hits the metal" point where absolute supply meets absolute demand.