Global stock markets shed some $2.5 trillion in value last week, prompting a spate of news entries under the headline ‘Panic’.  However, the development should not have come as a surprise to most commentators, whether they were experienced financial market observers or not. Indeed, the majority of market participants have been asking themselves how the equities have maintained such levels for so long. In other words, what happened last week should have taken place over the past few months, but the direction of the move was correct.