We are in the midst of a seismic upheaval in the global financial system and a nasty recession looms. The collapse of US bank Lehman Brothers as we went to press last month was dramatic, but it pales into insignificance compared with events over the ensuing five weeks. The law of unintended consequences, a direct result of allowing Lehman Brothers to go to the wall, has been applied to devastating effect, with some savers and all equity investors losing big time.