A spritely performance from “Old Europe” – France and Germany – helped Eurozone growth exceed expectations in the first quarter.

There is apparently a “great private banking myth” out there.

A cashless society is a great idea, but new data form Britain reveals that we’re a long way off cashless living.

According to The Independent newspaper, British shoppers spent £5bn ($10bn) more in notes and coins last year, challenging the long-held view that Britain is becoming a cashless society.

A survey suggests the value of cash as a proportion of total spending rose from 32 to 34 per cent, the first reversal of a two-decade trend.

“It’s one of those days where nothing much seems to be happening,” I said as I sat down at our morning meeting. Boy was I wrong!

Now the days are not only longer but finally starting to warm, what happened in the financial world this week? Well, on Monday Mervyn King stepped up to the plate and offered a deal for UK banks. They could swap assets of unknown worth mortgage-backed securities for those of known worth government bonds .

The base metals were all mired in the red on Monday. Copper retreated some more from the $4 level, falling from the pre-dawn hours straight through to late morning, then coming just off its intraday lows to finish at $3.918/lb., down 3 1/3 cents from Friday.

Yesterday, UK rates came down a quarter to 5%. ECB rates held steady as expected at 4% and all of us who continue to feel poorer can be grateful that we’re not paying a mortgage in Iceland.

It caused quite a stir at the Barclays bank branch in Enfield, north London. It was 1967 and actor Reg Varney, popular at the time in the hit TV sitcom On The Buses, opened the first hole in the wall cash machine.