Conversations on a rainy weekend when the sun plays tag with the minister of economic affairs...

    "Get a load of this!" said the middle aged husband, fingering his out-moded wire rimmed glasses.

    "What's wrong now?" Maggie, his wife, was still half asleep.

    "Ever heard of a guy called Mike Davis?"

   "There must be thousands of guys with that name."

   "I know but this is the Mike Davis who just published a book on the slum planet."

   "Oh, really...is that something you read last night instead of paying attention to me?" Maggie's voice was tinged with irony.

   "Come on! It's a serious problem. The guy says 78% of people in poor countries live in slums."

  "Sounds a bit off key, if you ask me. Anyway, what does that have to do with us?"

   "Not much, I guess, but what if the stock market really does crash?"

  "Don't be silly. It'll never crash."

  "What makes you so sure about that?"

  "It just that, well, if what that guy says is right then there's a lot of market potential in the world. Those poor people need to be brought into the market, don't they?"

  "Maybe. But if they don't have money..."

  "Problems, problems...Oh, by the way, we've got to pay the mortgage on our house and..."

  "Don't worry. It's just a bubble. Bubbles pop and then new bubbles take their place...I'm sorry about last night. I couldn't sleep, thinking about the bubble popping, so I just wasn't up to it."

   "I've heard the same old story for years. Darling, I've had enough. I'm leaving you..."

  "What???????????"