It's been months since I blogged, a shockingly long interval in an era when the world is capable of performing a double back flip twice before breakfast. And what times we live in? I started my career in journalism months before the 1987 Crash (the 21st anniversary of which is ominously close - what is it about October?). But that had nothing on this. Then, London's economy ploughed on almost without a blip once the wreckage was cleared away. It was eventually only felled in 1990 after the boom got out of hand and interest rates had to be jacked up to 15 per cent.

This time the crash is so much more multi-faceted. With its reliance on financial services London is a highly leveraged, derivative version of the real economy. Boy, things were good in the boom times and, yes there are going to be so much worse now that the cycle has turned.

But were they really that good? For some yes. But thanks to the foreign money that poured into the capital, London became the world's most expensive major city to live in. With home stamp duty and the congestion charge it was also the most heavily taxed part of Britain. It wasn't always easy being middle class in the oligarch's city of choice.

I can think of very few friends who have done much better than muddle through on painfully stretched household budgets in the supposed years of feast. Higher inflation means ordinary Londoners will have to make some further economies in the coming time of famine. But as long as they stay in work, and that may be a big if, they will get through. Just.

It will be back to Tesco and "unhappy" chickens for a while but, hey, we can live with that.

But many of those who have really enjoyed the good times - the City traders, the magic circle lawyers, the "big four" accountancy partners, the just plain rich - the shock will be much greater.

Those with money in the stock market will already be sitting on big losses this year. Worse, much worse if they invested in banks. Bonuses will typically be more than halved. Many will see their year of toil rewarded, insultingly, with just nothing more than their base salary. And tens of thousands will be out of work.

That's not to say there will be no sympathy. But honestly, it had got out of hand. Basements dug so deep they were within nodding distance of the earth's core, houses built with lifts because their wealthy owners can't be doing with stairs like the rest of us. Perhaps worst of all, that wretched traffic black hole opposite Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge that has divided London into two zones. The Candy brothers, the developers behind the building site that caused this congestion vortex, have a lot to answer for. The billionaires can have their £100 million crash pads. But why do they have to make life such a misery for the rest of us? For those of us who have spent much of the past year waiting to get past Candy Central there will be little grief if their monument to 21st century greed never gets built.

As for the rest of us, life will go on. London can take it.