I’ve been running my own business for many a year now, but the great thing is that there’s always something you can learn. So here’s a handy business tip: 1. Get lots of pretty-much captive customers 2. Quadruple your prices 3. As if by magic, your profits soar! It worked for the oil and energy companies last year and, wow, it’s worked for HSBC and doubtless will for a few other big banks. From the outside it might seem that world events, soaring oil prices and interest rates, have been behind their success. I’m sure we’ll find when bonuses come to be paid, however, that it was actually down to the bosses. The man on the Today programme tried to pin down the man from the FCA, to find out what they might do about it. Apparently, they’re definitely going to see what they can do about it. That’s about as far as he got, despite much attempted pillorying. And so it goes.
“CBI forecasts no Bank of England rate cuts until at least 2026”
The ‘lag’, ‘trailing leg’ or ‘long wake’ of any economic measure means that its effects are often felt long after the problem it was supposed to solve has disappeared. 2010’s ‘balancing the books within the space of one parliament’ (that went well, didn’t it?), austerity to you and me, is one example.