In his final Budget as Chancellor, Gordon Brown said “inflation will be on target” throughout 2008 and 2009. In the 22 months since his forecast, inflation has yet to hit the 2% target and has been above the 3% upper limit eight times.
Britain now faces months of inflation below the lower limit of 1% and even a possible bout of deflation. RPI inflation looks set to fall from 0.1% to between minus 4% and minus 5% later this year.
Given the September rate of RPI is what is used by the Government when setting the state pension and benefits, and by most employers negotiating wage deals, millions upon millions of us can look forward to less money in our pockets.

* Brown made another pledge during his final Budget of March 2007: “We will never return to the old boom and bust.” That will surely rank alongside George Bush the Elder's infamous “Read my lips: no new taxes” pledge as the shortest electoral suicide note in political history...

* Jo Johnson, editor of the Financial Times's Lex column and younger brother of Boris, has the same way with words as the Mayor. Discussing the fact that Royal Bank of Scotland is majority-owned by the Government, Johnson asks: “Do British taxpayers want the junior bottlewasher from the Treasury in charge of RBS's £1800 billion balance sheet?”
Surely that is no way to describe John Kingman, Second Permanent Secretary of the Treasury and chief executive of RBS owner UK Financial Investments. Kingman, 39, is a former Lex columnist from 1995 to 1997.

* “Can you be the voice of building societies?” asks the Building Societies Association, which is advertising for a head of external affairs.
Once, working for the BSA was decidedly unglamorous — indeed it hardly sets the pulse racing even now — but in these troubled times working for the mutuals looks a far safer bet than any big City bank. It would appear a six-figure sum is on offer for someone with “senior management experience in External Affairs/PR”.

* Another case of playing it safe: The Ministry of Defence says that it has seen a surge of job inquiries from City solicitors and barristers as the economic downturn takes its toll on corporate law firms.

Nights with De Niro going begging at a mere £1370...

Robert De Niro's waiting... and waiting... for guests to start booking the rooms at his ultra-trendy New York boutique hotel The Greenwich.
The Raging Bull actor opened for business in the city's trendy TriBeCa district about a year ago to glowing reviews from the glossies but now — according to his business partners — the place is operating half-empty. A quick look at the website illustrates the problem.
Plenty of rooms are available at most price points, should you be planning to whisk a loved one across the Pond this weekend.
Even at the very top end, you can still book three of the six suites, providing you can spare the $1950 (£1370) a night.

Can EMI chart course to safety?

Terra Firma private-equity boss Guy Hands, owner of EMI, must be hoping the record label's luck will hold.
He is celebrating after Lily Allen's second album, It's Not Me, It's You, went straight to the top of the album charts — it sold more copies than the three next best-selling albums combined.
And Coldplay picked up three Grammy Awards, with the prospect of another hatful at the Brit Awards, which take place tonight. So things are looking up, although Hands still has a mighty task ahead of him. Terra Firma bought EMI at the top of the market in summer 2007, and the record label has been under pressure to ensure it does not breach a loan covenant deadline next month. EMI is confident there will be no problems.

* Times must be particularly gloomy at the Institute of Travel Management, because they've racked their brains to invent something exciting for attendees of their annual conference in late March. Whether the Strictly Come Dancing contest they have come up with will quite fit the bill remains to be seen. But with such luminaries as British Airways UK general manager Richard Tams, AstraZeneca head of procurement Caroline Strachan and head honchos from BP and other firms set to grace the competitive dance floor, City Spy foresees some vintage YouTube viewing opportunities for staff…

Kids' stuff peddled by Morgan for its centenary

Morgan Motor Company, one of the oldest (and strangest) car manufacturers, has come up with an unusual response to the credit crisis.
It intends to produce a children's pedal car to celebrate its centenary this year. The SuperSport looks just like an early 1900s Morgan three-wheeler car but it has no engine. Instead, it is powered by one of those horizontal bicycle-style devices — the sort you find eccentric old chaps pedalling along the lanes of Cornwall with flags fluttering behind.
The toy will be two-thirds the size of the first three-wheeler produced by HFS Morgan from his Morgan workshops 100 years ago. A rather swanky brochure promises “exciting performance with low effort” (depends how fit the rider is, surely) as well as hand-stitched adjustable seating, a tubular aluminium chassis, “hand formed louvres” (er, good oh) and headlights.
The price? A mere £2510, which by City Spy's reckoning is roughly a day's bonus payment at most
state-owned banks.
This Morgan is being aimed at children but, you never know, it might appeal to fitness obsessives looking to get one over on the chairman in the company car park.

* What must the Indians think of our bureaucrats?
First we send them David Miliband, who upsets everybody just weeks after the Mumbai attacks by telling India its policy on Kashmir is the root cause of its terrorism problems.
Then along comes the City of London Corporation, seeking meetings with high-ups in the finance ministry to push British trade ideas.
Nothing wrong with that, of course, except that our leaders at the Corporation have chosen to visit during the Indian equivalent of the Pre-Budget Report.
Little surprise, then, that our plucky delegates have found few senior bods with time to lend them an ear.