"The sea's freezing. A man won't last long in that. We've drawn a bad hand this time."
"I've never been a good loser. I intend to get into a boat."

- Conversation between two card-players on The Titanic, from Eric Ambler's screenplay, 'A Night To Remember'.

The Titanic centenary was always going to be the trigger for a plethora of tasteless attempts to cash in on the tragedy. The "best" we've seen so far was the Hotel Russell's promotion of its 'Titanic breakfast' - which presumably goes down a treat, though not without a degree of attendant turbulence. Having considered for some time the most appropriate metaphor for the current market environment the cause sometimes seemed lost, but we think we have it now. There are a number of sequences in Roy Ward Baker's 1958 classic account, 'A Night To Remember', that depict a lounge in one of the upper class quarters of the ship as it slowly sinks beneath the waves. Notwithstanding the vessel listing alarmingly, a motley band of toff revellers are determined to go out in the finest Hooray Henry style. Some continue to play at cards with a fatalistic resolve while behind them, a group of braying nobs determinedly quaff spirits direct from the bottle. One may be doomed, but one can still party on.

David Fuller's view Fortunately, in the investment world we can always change ship in mid-course, if need be.

Tim Price also refers to Jeremy Grantham's Quarterly in this letter.