Those headlines are always accompanied by pictures of men in front of computers, ties askew, heads in hands as they wave goodbye to their bonuses. The latest end-of-the-world as we know it ‘plunge’ was triggered, as always, by something non-sensical, the fear that because more people in the US have jobs, they might spend more, push up inflation and maybe interest rates. The glass half-full version might be that companies will do better and make more profits as a result. But if a herd of wildebeest think they’ve seen a lion on the horizon there’s no persuading them it’s a trick of the light. And that’s how stock markets work.
“Advice firm Almond Financial moves to four-day working week”
The Four Day Week was much discussed and trailed post-COVID, when remote-working looked likely to end strap-hanging commutes for good and laptops on the kitchen table were to become the ’new norm’.