I'm sure it must be even worse for bankers but, as a financial journalist, you feel an icy stab of dread when someone turns to you at a party and asks what it is 'you do'. It was bad enough before the credit crunch, but since it has got worse. Now, most people either give you their prognosis for the euro or quiz you about how bankers can justify their bonuses. (If the person happens to be a banker, they feel duty-bound to end the conversation as quickly as possible, then spend the rest of the evening pointedly looking like they're not having fun.)

But the main problem with this conversational tack is that it sometimes leads to me being asked for investment advice.

I, like many financial journalists I know, don't have any practical financial knowledge