It's almost 13 years since the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, when it was summarised as the NHS, the Spice Girls, London taxis and even Victorian infrastructure.
A remote chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean may soon become the world's next nation-triggering a fresh geopolitical tug-of-war between global superpowers.
Financial markets, so the saying goes, are driven by fear and greed - fear when times are tough, greed when times are good. Today, fear is in the ascendant - and so is gold.