The true impact of the writers' strike that has seen the Golden Globes cancelled and the Oscars threatened has now been felt worldwide as stock markets across the world have crashed.
Billions have been wiped off the value of shares as traders realised that there were no more speeches available to make announcements about how the world economy was safe and how the Bush administration had not made a complete botch job of another issue of global importance.
Invoking emergency procedures, the Federal Reserve was able to find a speech which is kept in a secret location and was written some time after the Second World War. The old speech, which announces a stunning 0.75% drop in interest rates, was greeted with suspicion by world markets. Unfortunately similar speeches for world markets could not be located and the subsequent silence left other stock markets in a state of nervousness.