Economic Outlook Never assume August is going to be a quiet month. In the first week, we seemed to be on the verge of a financial apocalypse.

The US is limping along. And, as time goes by, the limp is becoming ever more pronounced. The rot set in long before the financial crisis

Economic outlook: Faced with the loss of fiscal sovereignty, governments could more easily sell 'local austerity' rather than 'Brussels austerity'

Economic outlook: We have been relying on a pace of economic growth which may now be beyond our reach, a sobering realisation

Economic outlook: The devaluation of the pound has had an impact. Oil prices, for example, recently hit a record in sterling terms

Fondly remembered as a TV presenter, this cropped-blonde Scot was a tough-talking broadcaster and journalist in a time of Eighties "yoof" programming, and later appeared on our screens marching up mountains, enthusing about fell walking. What few viewers suspected was that Muriel Gray had a secret life as the author of several terrific (and terrifically creepy) supernatural thrillers.

Lakes tale plunges to dark depths

If the US does not ultimately deliver austerity, it may have austerity imposed through the back door

The new behemoths bend, twist and warp prices in ways that make the control of inflation more difficult

But George Osborne's numbers are also based on some very optimistic assumptions regarding a pick-up in trade

Beware the book that bears the legend "Soon to Be a Major Film", for the film won't be made and the book is bound to vanish. Such was the fate of The Auctioneer by Joan Samson, a novel that took America by storm and became a best-seller. Hollywood came calling, and then – nothing. Samson completed only this one novel in her lifetime, although she was working on a second at the time of her death.

Economic outlook: Sterling's sharp decline might create conditions for an export renaissance – but 'might' is not 'will'

What's gone wrong? Why can't the experts on the Monetary Policy Committee see eye to eye?

Outlook: A credit-constrained economy won't be able to generate high inflation for ever, yetthe split between growth and inflation has deteriorated rapidly