Economic View: Let's not get excited, but if the big three keep on bringing in the bacon, the Government will be able to get the deficit down

Outlook Remember when the Bank of England said Britain's banks were short of £25bn? Pfah. Storm in a teacup. Nothing to see here, move along.

Outlook Talking of the IMF, its main reason for being in town yesterday was to give its view on the current state of the UK's economy.

Outlook Royal Mail plumped itself up for joining the stock market yesterday with some flashy looking operating profits.

Outlook Large companies that spend so much on public relations and marketing, and worry so much about how they appear, don't half make a hash of it when they talk about tax.

Outlook How long has Marc Bolland got? About a year, seems the consensus, so that he can at least give undeniable evidence that his Marks & Spencer turnaround is actually turning.

That’s not to say Europe doesn’t deserve a kicking every now and again. A reader, who is an osteopath, tells me of a problem that I fear is all too common among those affected by the forced sale of branches by Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland.

There’s a risk in the CBI entering the European debate. Britain is in a sullen and surly mood  right now.

Is Marissa Mayer riding for a fall? Or just a bit of a Tumbl(r)? It all depends on whether she can successfully generate a bit more than the pitiful $13m (£8.6m) of revenue that Tumblr, the blogging website she is going to use $1.1bn of Yahoo’s money to buy, has so far managed.

It is a funny time in Italy. On paper the country's economy has now shrunk for seven consecutive quarters, making it the longest recession since the Second World War, and leaving it some 8 per cent below the peak reached in 2007.

So the share price of Lloyds Bank has just about squeaked above the level where the taxpayers start to make a profit on our involuntary investment.

The cascade of revelations in recent months showing multinational companies doing a huge amount of business here and yet paying virtually no corporation tax has provoked widespread public demands for something to be done. But people tend to be rather hazier on what that "something" should be.

The population of Iceland is one of the most content in the world