recession

A perfect pair
This is the time of year traditionally known as the silly season and it's hard going for people who can't relax and have no sense of humour. I like this time of year, it's a test and passing with flying colours is Edmund Conway. He brings us, in the Telegraph, but with no online version, one of the funniest stories in a while. It has an inauspicious start in that its central character is Mervyn King. But stay with me for that man is more than just an authority on moral hazard. Conway says that King likes to tell of the moment he realised that what he calls the, Great Recession, will be harder to get out of than you might think. King was at a posh conference on the world circuit with the great and the good, the politicians who lead us, and was both amused and horrified to hear them all declare they would get out of the mess by exporting. Clearly for this to work buyers and sellers must come in pairs. But at the conference in question all the world leaders were sellers. King gives the impression that only he spotted the problem, at the conference maybe.

However, the man atop the Clapham omnibus has known this for years.