ARE we facing Armageddon - again - just seven years after the global financial crisis struck? It feels a bit like it judging from the quality (or lack thereof) in much of the share market commentary over the past week. But there are grounds for optimism that Doomsday is not at hand, yet at least.

Having witnessed more financial crises than I care to remember, I am very wary of the phrase "this time is different", but the stockmarket rout or shakeout we are seeing now is different qualitatively from more recent crises. Whether it proves different quantitatively remains to be seen.

It is essentially the bursting of an equity market bubble, unlike the 2008 global financial crisis which struck deep (and in some cases mortal) blows into the heart of leading financial institutions that had gorged themselves on property-related and securitised assets.