Listening to some corporate bond experts gave me another reason to be (economically) cheerful. These bonds are one of the ways big companies can raise money, lend us a few £m, we’ll pay you interest (hopefully) and pay you back in a few years (hopefully). Apparently, the likes of LiveNation, who sell concert and festival tickets and other leisure firms and pub owners had no trouble raising cash last year. So most who should know think they’ll bounce back with a vengeance. Although an economist did once say that “the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable”
“UK slips into recession as economy contracts 0.1% in December”
This week’s big economic and bad election news is that we are, or certainly have been, officially in a recession. You may not have thought you were, or you may have thought you have been for some time, as we and its effects are all different.