Would-be first-time buyers have had a hard time of it. They want to buy a house, but time and again many are thwarted by the same problem. They can’t afford to buy a house. Not being able to afford something is a very common problem in markets.

The news on the UK economy just keeps getting worse. Last week’s news was unremittingly glum - from falling house prices to income squeezes, most of us are quite a bit worse off than we were a year ago.

It was the usual doom and gloom when I opened the paper this morning. The Bank of England predicts a protracted slowdown. It’s revised its growth forecast for next year to 1.5%, down from a 2009 forecast of 2.8% made last year.

Later today at noon, to be precise the Bank of England will announce its latest decision on interest rates. So what’s it going to do? The question is a lot harder to answer this month than we’ve been used to for the last few years.

Spring sunshine may have arrived but the mood is still winter. The Anglo-Saxon consumer is at a low point. In the US consumer confidence is at a 26-year low says Morgan Stanley’s David Darst. And in the UK it hit an all time low point in April says the Nationwide building society.

It’s not only the clouds outside that seem to be lifting. Optimism broke out in various quarters, reflected in global equities. The Dow closed above 13,000 on Thursday. The Nikkei closed above 14,000. The FTSE 100 was over 6,100 by mid-day Friday.

The mood seems to be lifting. A more optimistic tone in the Sunday papers…a prod of encouragement from the Bank of England…and now global equities are surging.

Its business model is backwards, its products are lacking in taste; but it’s a great little company. Portmeirion is a company that defies most preconceptions of what should make a successful British business.