A sigh of relief?

So will the markets breath a sigh of relief on Monday?
It says something that if only eight banks out of 20 failed the 5% benchmark that this should be treated as good news. But, there are still 15 that are in the danger zone and that is with the frantic capitalisation that went on in the first quarter of this year.
We will see on Monday which banks find favour with the markets and despite this breather, I am sure the ratings agencies may take a different view.

IMF

So the IMF says keep going to George and the government.

That is good for George who dismissed economists who criticised the plans in the weekend papers as "left-wing academics".

But there are still danger signs on the horizon of sluggish growth and higher inflation. On the other hand, inflation is expected to drop back to 2% next year according to the IMF.

Now whether that is because no-one will be buying anything because we are all skint or, whisper it, the Bank of England is correct and the inflation wasn't trending remains to be seen.

What ever happens next, it seems that once again we have dodged the bullet.

Napoleon said he wanted lucky generals, I wonder if the same applies to chancellors?

BoE TURNS TO TEENAGERS OVER INFLATION

Far be it for me to make fun of an initiative designed
to promote financial awareness among teenagers but, in light of government figures out today and the missed inflation target once again, should we be worried that the MPC may have run out of ideas?

This week marks the launch of the twelfth Interest Rate Challenge, the competition designed to give 16 to 18 year old students across the UK the opportunity to take on the role of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and set monetary policy for the UK to meet the inflation target of 2.0%. 

Bank of England press release 

Yeah, I know it's the 12th such competition but I couldn't resist!

photo: FreeFoto.com