(Originally posted on November 20th 2009)

I have had epilepsy since I was a kid. For a brief period I was drug free but had a relapse when I had an accident. Now I have resigned myself to the fact that I will have to take my medicines for the rest of my life. Why am I revealing this? The reason is that an epileptic dance artist is planning to induce a seizure on stage by fasting, not taking her medicine and by having strobe lighting. In financial terms it would be like giving money without sufficient collateral then not hedging your portfolio and then leveraging your investment. It sounds crazy right? However that is exactly what happened. The result was to be expected as the world went through a massive epileptic fit. Once you get an epileptic attack you have to be attack free for 5 years before then can consider gradually reducing the medicine. Then small things like your weight can make a big difference. Cut the medication too fast and it will harm the patient. Similarly all this talk about the pace of Quantitative Easing is interesting. My opinion is that it should be done gradually otherwise we will see a relapse. The effects of the crisis has not been felt as yet. It will take time to see the markets stabilise in a proper fashion. Of course in 5 years time we could see another crash.