This is not my favourite time of the year. I go into a depression as soon as the clock goes back - even an extra hour's sleep last Saturday couldn't compensate for the darker evenings that now hurtle in. The added irritant to the last couple of months of the year is the sudden urge of so many motorists to leave their rear fog-lights on.

Driving to and from work in the dark is bad enough without having one of these idiots in front of you. The light is blinding as befits something that's supposed to be seen through a grey haze, and if I don't get a headache from the glare, I get one from suppressing the urge to jump out of my car and ask the driver in front if he or she has noticed the fact that the fog-lights are on. There is a light on the dash to tell you that, after all. But these people are obviously oblivious to that - or else they like the fact that the dash is lit up like a Christmas tree.

Anyway the weather (fog or not) hit the headlines since RTE started talking about replacing the weather forecasters with "presenters". It doesn't make much difference to me who tells me it's going to be sunny with the possibility of heavy showers and a westerly wind switching to the east later, but I suppose I'd be worried if I was a weather forecaster. Apparently the weather people think that the presenters won't do as good a job because they don't have the background knowledge or expertise to suddenly change the forecast with 10 seconds to go.

You're wondering what this has to do with the markets, but it sounds a lot like financial market forecasting to me. All doom and gloom one minute and then a ray of sunshine appearing over the horizon. I bet Eddie George wishes he had a presenter that could stand up a la Nicole Kidman in a candy-pink suit and tell the people in the North of England about the Bank of England's inflationary policy.

What on earth was Eddie thinking when he shared his most recent gem of wisdom? Let's face it, if a financial journalist asks the governor of the Bank of England whether job losses in the north are a "price worth paying" should the governor of the Bank of England say "yes"? I don't think so.

There are lots of ways of saying yes without saying yes. If Eddie had allowed a specially groomed presenter to talk about job losses instead, the presenter could have blinked a lot, smiled and blustered convincingly, while Eddie remained safely in his office away from potential storm clouds. As it is, northern manufacturers feel that the bank is out to get them and they could be right.

I think it was interesting that the only person to have consistently voted for rate cuts in Britain (prior to the more recent turbulence) was DeAnne Julius. She was the only member of the Monetary Policy Committee, as far as I know, to have worked in industry. The rest of the committee is made up of academics who like to treat the market like a bunch of schoolchildren.

The markets have been trying to stabilise a little in the last few weeks but it's still all a matter of confidence and that's what the professionals don't have much of right now. Once again, the threat of job losses still looms, particularly in the beleaguered US banking sector.

Somewhat worryingly, last week saw more shivers from the East, although this time it was China that was the cause of people's nervousness. A substantial amount of foreign investment in China has been carried out by way of ITICs (International Trust and Investment Corporations).

Unfortunately, one of the ITICs - Guangdong (one of the biggest) - was closed by the Bank of China recently and others have delayed or missed interest payments. Added to the worry is that the 242 ITICs have subsidiaries to which banks have also lent. Both the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have been watching the ITICs with concern. Given that the banks have been such big lenders to the region, it looks a little gloomy for them now.

In the meantime, debt markets continue to fluctuate given that hedge fund positions continue to be unwound. So far, this has been relatively orderly, but it is almost impossible to judge how often a market move has been forced by the activities of a hedge fund. Naturally the authorities continue to talk about the regulation of such funds, but it's a bit late now.

However, interest rates continue on a downward momentum and, given the fragile state of other investments, paying off debt is beginning to look like an evermore attractive option. Let's face it, no debt is a nice prospect. At least you've put your cash to good use and you can sleep at night. All the same, I'm not sure it's in the psyche of anyone born in the last 30 years or so to have no debt.

Investors in the pub trade in Ireland are certainly not shy about racking it up going on the recent price paid for the Sheaf of Wheat in Coolock. A staggering £4.75 million was paid for this pub, which goes to prove that, despite all the trendy cafebars around town, the pub is still one of the best investments around.

Finally, I'm indebted to my colleague, Eunan King, who passed a copy of a recent study on fiscal policy et al to me. Fortunately, he didn't expect me to read the entire document (and why should I when he can tell me all I need to know about fiscal policy), but he did highlight a phrase which I feel I must share with you. Maybe this is why Eddie George doesn't have a presenter to make policy speeches for him. The piece commends the Government for its stance of recent years in maintaining tight fiscal policies. In fact, it calls the Government "fiscally rectal". Or is that just another way of saying "a pain in the bum"?

Sheila O'Flanagan is a fixed-income specialist at NCB Stockbrokers.