James Moore: It's blockbuster season for floats and sell-offs

Outlook There is, of course, one part of the economy where things surely are looking up. And, yes, it's the City again.

Floats and deals keep its wheels turning and the market for new share issues, at least, is looking buoyant again.

Obviously there are a lot of banking assets due to come on to the market, with the state selling (Lloyds, perhaps RBS), the state supported banks selling (TSB, Williams & Glyn's) and others thinking about dusting off their plans.

Then there's the Royal Mail, Foxtons and Merlin Entertainment. The London Stock Exchange's cup runneth over, and what's more there doesn't appear to be a Bumi or an ENRC among them to besmirch London's reputation.

Happy days then? Up to a point. It's true that fund managers are potentially going to get quite a bit of cash to invest through Vodafone's sale of Verizon Wireless.

But even with that, there's still a danger, with all those assets speeding towards the market, of Hollywood block-buster syndrome: when all the studios release their summer specials at more or less the same time, some will inevitably flop.