The call went out to a number of consumer organisations – the Canada Association for the 50plus, the Shareowners Association and the Small Investor Protection Association. A mere 24 investors responded by the deadline. Even such a tiny straw poll, however, managed to find a few SP nemeses. While the majority believed that all investment products should be made available to all investors, some of the few dissenters were quick to point a finger at principal protected notes (PPNs), putting them in the same basket as special-purpose acquisition companies, and conversely, high-risk ventures.

One investor simply responded: “Principal protected notes: the industry ought to be ashamed.” Another respondent said ominously, “I had an advisor until recently. He sold a hybrid structured product to my parents… he represented it as being more similar to a fixed-income investment than it really was… I would have preferred that he inform us upfront of the fees embedded, including the amount he gets as a trailer.” Some took a more blanket approach – despite no products being specifically named in the question, the investor stated: “Absolutely, these investments should be banned.”

Hedge funds, labour-sponsored funds and deferred service charges were also subject to lengthy criticisms.

But financial market liberals remain, as evidenced by the conclusion that investors should be able to select whichever products they like. “All investment products should be available to all investors. To my mind anything short of this is a form of discrimination which I didn’t think was allowed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” said one. Stirring stuff indeed.

Not a New Year hangover, for sure. It is tough to analyse the parlous financial state that we are in without at least reflecting on what people think that state is. Rather than kids’ newsreaders, it seems appropriate to talk to a variety of investors, analysts and financial market experts. As Bank of New York Mellon has already hauled together a group of such commentators, it is expedient to take a look at their language to uncover the state we are in.

The bank leads off with an anecdote which culminates in a prominent financial services executive announcing that his company was exiting the investment banking business because, “I have had about all the fun I can stand”.

Pile driving into the nitty gritty, we start with this little niblet, from Michael Ho, chief investment officer, Mellon Capital Management Corp, who tells us that things are not great: “Historical analysis demonstrates that turning points of stock markets typically start during recessions…”

John Truschel, chief investment officer, The Boston Company Asset Management adds more sparkle and lustre: “We believe the financial crisis is reaching a crescendo… We have reached the capitulation stage where the enormous policy responses from Washington are likely to reverse the tide.”

Oliver Buckley, chief executive officer and chief investment officer, Franklin Portfolio Associates, thinks today’s times are altogether tamer: “We believe it prudent to expect the US economy to contract over the next several quarters … we hope and expect the “modest downturn” scenario to unfold.”

Drama returns, this time from Hugh Hunter, head of global emerging markets, WestLB Mellon Asset Management, who paints a colourful picture of a disaster that has taken us over: “Fear and total risk aversion gripped investors in the face of credit market paralysis in the developing world, banking sector collapses or rescues.”

For Hugh Simon, chief executive officer, Hamon Investment Group, we have to contend with the dangerously vivacious, “present market turmoil”.

Equally calm and almost muted is Kent Wosepka, chief investment officer, Standish Mellon Asset Management’s, “A healthy credit can rapidly get sick if it cannot refinance upcoming bond maturities”.

Before somnambulism takes hold, Mellon’s Michael Ho reminds us of the words of Franklin D Roosevelt: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.

That fear is then downgraded by Todd Briddell, Chief Investment Officer, Urdang Securities Management, who starts a review of Alternative Investments - Real Estate with: “While the current financial crisis is troubling…”

Another comment on alternative investments, this time hedge funds, from Peter Noris, chief investment officer, Ivy Asset Management Corp, provides an equally, almost ambivalent view of the current chaos: “We are now in a period of industry consolidation, where today’s losers will be sorted out from tomorrow’s winners.”

It gets better the more alternative investment outlooks you read. For commodities, Robin Webbe, vice-president, The Boston Company Asset Management appears almost unconcerned when observing, “Our longer-term case for commodities must be made with full understanding that the global economy has entered a cooling phase.”

The honest truth is left until the end of BNYM’s report on 2009, when Philip Maisano, chief investment strategist, BNY Mellon Asset Management sums it up with gusto, some accuracy and more woe. Entitling his edge of the clifftop thoughts ‘Where and when will this end?”, Maisano just about catches the right mood. “What began as a credit ‘event’ related to sub-prime mortgages issued since 2004 has exploded into a full blown ‘crisis of confidence’ in all securities and the entire financial system.”