The crisis could still be a long way off. Martin Barnes of Canada's highly-respected BCA consultancy, which originally developed the concept of a debt supercycle, says we're nowhere near the end of it yet.

We're not yet experiencing the global develeraging that produces another great depression, as the bubble of total debt continues to inflate, with government debt rising much faster than private-sector debt is falling.

Currently "governments can print money and borrow like crazy without provoking inflation because of slack in productive capacity created by the recession."

We have the absurd current situation, where investors are prepared to pay governments to look after their money - negative interest rates in some cases, with negative real (inflation-adjusted) rates commonplace.

But that cannot last. At some stage, "you run out of suckers to buy government debt," as Mauldin puts it.

Lots of nasty things are likely to happen, sooner or later:

David Fuller's view And thus it always was. Historically, investors have often faced as many risks as opportunities. The key to successful navigation in this environment is to identify and follow the money flows. This requires common sense, analytical curiosity, an understanding of crowd behaviour, and a willingness to observe price charts in the manner of a naturalist.

I commend Martin Spring's letter to subscribers. He reads everything and has both the experience and analytical ability to 'separate the wheat from the chaff'.