Wake up guys - at least those of you in the West, or whose earnings are hosted in the West.

The worldwide economic slump will have added at least ten years to the amount of time people aged 45-65 will need to work. Their savings have been drastically reduced after the devaluation of bonds and equities worldwide, and any state help for them will be cut to almost nothing, so they will be retiring with nothing to live on and with no help. They will have to continue working.

People aged 30-45 will probably have less savings, so (on paper) will have lost less. However, any savings built up over the next 5 years or so will return almost nothing. Anyone who has a Defined Contribution pension will find that it returns about 20% of the projections they will have been given. Those people on final salary pensions will probably find that they are closed before you retire. Things may pick up by the time they do reach older age, but the days of comfortable retirement under 65 have finished for all but the tiny fortunate minority.

People under 30 are truly screwed, because they are the people who will end up paying back all the money that our bankers have squandered. This will take a generation!

Rant over.