Investors have been selling off riskier holdings, including debt issued by companies, as worries grow about the number of firms that have been impacted in the US sub-prime crisis.

BBC: China says most of its reserves are in US Treasury Bonds

Even in Europe, where economic worries continue to grow, luxury sales were up more than twice that!

FORBES: It's Necessities I Can Do Without

Even in private, the Tories are sure Mr Cameron will outmatch any of the candidates for sheer political skill (though they admit to worries that Ed Miliband could grow into the role).

ECONOMIST: Britain is in store for another perilously close election

Worries in America are likely to grow if China's space programme keeps up its steady pace of development.

ECONOMIST: After a successful Olympics, China��s next spectacular

The economy still worries consumers and retailers, who expect total sales to grow at a slower rate than last year.

WSJ: Early Holiday Sales Pay Off, for Now

Biofuels Watch, a British lobby group, worries that a craze for the stuff could see virgin land tilled specifically to grow crops such as switchgrass, whose only purpose was to be pyrolised and buried.

ECONOMIST: Biochar could enrich soils and cut greenhouse gases as well