Businesses hold key (and cash) to X'mas Good Cheer

Tokyo

IT was approaching Christmas time and old Ebenezer Scrooge sat hunched at the desk of his counting house (bank) in the City of London. He was wearing a threadbare overcoat and warming his hands over a candle that served as a substitute for a fire. "Bah! Humbug!", he growled.

Turning to his hearty and smiling young nephew who had come by to wish the joyless Scrooge a "Merry Christmas", he barked: "Why should I give that snivelling clerk of mine, Bob Cratchit, a pay rise? He will only go out and spend it if I do."

The nephew gave him an indulgent look. "Well, Uncle," he said, "it is Christmas after all - and wasn't more spending exactly what the 'Old Lady' was trying to encourage us to do when she agreed to provide us with such largesse from her QE resources?" Scrooge was unmoved. "My money's going to stay right where it is now, in the safe," he snapped. Scrooge's nephew made…