I have blogged before about one of the best yet most under-used economic indicators, the Baltic Dry Index. This charts the movement (or lack of) of the world’s shipping.

To add to what I said, last month refrigerated-shipping operator Eastwind Maritime filed for bankruptcy in New York. Sweden’s Nordea bank seized and sold on 13 of its ships. Don’t hold the front page but I suspect these moves signal a further gloomy and probably prolonged period of global recession to come.

But there may be a glimmer of justice at least.

I note that a banker in Germany may feature in that country’s first trial related to the money meltdown. A Mr Stefan Ortseifen has been charged in Dusseldorf. He was the CEO of the IKB Bank and has been charged with manipulating the share price. A press release was declared by the prosecutor to have been “too positive” and caused investors to buy stock just a week before the bank came close to going bust altogether.

Mr Ortseifen is a rare breed. He’s one of the very, very, very, few bankers charged since the crash. Despite all the hoo-ha about Bernie Madoff’s 150-year sentence and Sir Alan Stanford’s alleged misdoing cloud, the reality is that the long arm of the law remains strangely stilled as this financial crisis continues to unfold.

Oh, and while I’m about it, are we drifting back to our bad old ways? Is it still possible for some rogue trader inside a London brokerage at 2am on a Tuesday morning to cause a spike in the world oil price? It seems so. Plus ça change!