Jean-Claude Trichet of the ECB has warned his audience at Davos of potential "instability" in the financial markets. (No transcript available, but reports here and here - and the next issue of Risk will be looking at his concerns in more detail.) He argues, as others have done before him, that the financial industry faces two linked problems - unusually cheap credit and unusually complex financial products.
Trichet and the ECB possess a European sort of wariness about financial innovation which isn't as evident in the British and US markets; it will be interesting to watch which way nascent markets like China choose to go. So far, the Chinese government has been cautious about opening up to new classes of financial products - maybe this will change.
And the BBC's Robert Peston points out one group who will definitely benefit from all this uncertainty and worry - the financial journalists. Whether the markets rise or fall, it's still news...