Business Diary: Cashing in on misery in the East End

Good to see entrepreneurial lawyers seeking to cash in on a plotline from EastEnders where, we understand, there is something of a row going on over the will of murdered Archie Mitchell. Irwin Mitchell solicitors (no relation, in case you wondered) are in touch to warn that such rows can take place in real life too – and, naturally, that they can offer useful advice on resolving them.

No more hat eating, plead economists

Economists have only just recovered from the humiliation of wrongly calling the recession as over during the third quarter of last year, but that's not put them off making the same prediction, ahead of today's announcement of official GDP figures. If the data doesn't show that, says Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight, "I will consider giving up forecasting – please don't let this turn out to be a career suicide note."

Finance minister's style is a cut above

Did Anders Borg, the Swedish finance minister, in London last week for a meeting with Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, catch the TV comedy show Armstrong and Miller? If so, given his current haircut, Mr Borg may have been just a little insulted by the sketch in which two characters vomit every time they see an ostensibly normal bloke with a ponytail.

Spelling mistake foils the fraudsters

The criminals behind online banking fraud have become increasingly sophisticated, but we rather like the one mistake the crooks currently targeting HSBC have made. They've set up a carbon copy of its website, which looks perfect, only to ruin all their hard work with emails appealing to "customers of HBSC". Try using a spellcheck next time guys.

Number of the day: 5

The number of days remaining before the final deadline for filing your 2008-09 tax return.