We continue to search for signs that the recession might be over. The stock markets are showing some confidence. We have seen what's called a "dead cat bounce". That's when markets rebound from their bottoms, and rise, only to fall back again. The term points out that even a dead cat, dropped from a height, will bounce - it's gallows humour.

Into my mailbox this week fell a report from KPMG entitled "A Glimmer of Hope: Growth prospects in the global insurance industry and the escalation of risk and capital management". It made interesting reading.

The report is the first of a two-part series that KPMG International has commissioned from the Economist Intelligence Unit. It examines how the financial crisis is changing the attitude of the global insurance industry to risk and capital management, highlighting some of the key issues that these institutions should address in response.

The survey's findings reflect the sentiment of the 315 senior insurance executives across 49 countries who answered the survey. Respondents came from Europe (31 percent); Asia Pacific (28 percent); North America (28 percent); and the Middle East and Africa (13 percent).

Insurers are cautiously optimistic about their prospects for the next year, the report said. "More than half of the respondents thought that their prospects for organic growth were positive, and a similar proportion believed that their prospects for growth by acquisition or take-over were also positive. They were also fairly confident that premium volumes would increase over the coming year."

Asked, looking ahead to the next 12 months, how they would rate the prospects for their business, respondents were largely confident. "Overall there is a striking consistency in their optimism as to their prospects," the report said.

That optimism didn't necessarily extend to their companies' share price, however. "Despite this overall optimism in a highly challenging environment, respondents in general were less sanguine about their prospects in the financial markets. Fewer than four in 10 respondents said that they expected an improvement in their share price over the next 12 months, perhaps reflecting a sentiment that the market has failed to see beyond the high-profile difficulties experienced by the likes of AIG."

Insurers' cautious optimism, which I find reflected, generally speaking, here and abroad among moneyed folk, is a good thing. Our level of confidence tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we think things are looking up, it is possible that they might. When everyone is agreed that it's all hopeless, it is hopeless. We've seen exactly that in the past 18 months.

So this week's message is: put on a happy face. Believe in yourself. If we all did that, we'd be better off.

* * *

Why on earth did ZBM-TV, on Friday morning at 12.35 a.m., in the slot reserved for David Letterman's show, give us show The Tonight Show, with Conan O'Brien? Surely the sole rights to broadcast O'Brien's show are owned by competitor VSB?

Unable to watch Letterman, instead I watched a DVD of "Brief Encounter", Noel Coward's tale of illicit romance among the British middle class. Emerging into the sunlight from a cinema, heroine Laura Jesson (played by Celia Johnson), in a voiceover, refers to the loveliness of the summer afternoon.

She says: "Do you know, I believe we should all behave quite differently if we lived in a warm, sunny climate all the time. We shouldn't be so withdrawn and shy and difficult."

Coward was an early adopter of Bermuda's financial services, yet he only managed to score two out of three with that comment: out here on the Rock, we are indeed not so withdrawn and shy ...

* * *

Jewish readers are advised to avoid the meeting at which Louis Farrakhan will speak on Monday. Mr. Farrakhan, popularly known as "the Charmer", has said on any number of occasions that, in his view, the Jews are responsible for holding black people back. Were we not long ago urged to follow the lead of Barack Obama? Candidate Obama roundly denounced Mr. Farrakhan during the election campaign.

"I have been very clear in my denunciation of Minister Farrakhan's anti-Semitic comments," Mr. Obama told Tim Russert, of NBC's Washington Bureau.

Not all of Mr. Farrakhan is a hateful bigot, though. His website biography says: "In January 2007, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan underwent a major 14-hour pelvic exoneration."

* * *

Now it can be told: I was asked this week to become the Minister of Domestic and International Affairs, Sport, Culture, Spiritual Healing and Biscuits, as well as to head up the Press Council, the Love Festival, The Love Council and the Press Festival.

I was also asked to lead the Small Debate (about the suitability of Bermuda shorts in the modern workplace). Oh, and to be the Mayor of Hamilton and St. George's and the King of Crawl and all the Uighurs Therein.

Unfortunately, I had to decline, because my elbow hurts a bit. I accepted the salary, though, because I deserve it. And the expense account. And the car. And the free parking. And the pension. And the respect of men and women everywhere, except Overplus Lane.