Tomorrow's Business Today
Peak perfect storm
Perfect storms are everywhere. At least in the imagination of hacks and increasingly flaks.
I noticed four “perfect storm” press releases in my inbox yesterday, all about different topics.
Stock markets face a perfect storm. Energy customers are in one. Bond investors too. Teenage girls are also in trouble because of Instagram – it’s a perfect storm see.
FT headline writers like it.
So does The Economist, which really ought to be above this sort of thing, though its article was at least about shipping.
According to Wikipedia the Oxford English Dictionary has references to perfect storms as far back as 1718.
So it has taken more than 300 years for it to move from useful description of an actual set of circumstances to tired cliché.
I can see why we all like it. It’s a dramatic way of saying “lots of bad stuff happening at once”.
It is discredited by overuse. I guess what happens is that flaks see hacks using a phrase and decide it is a good way of getting our attention.
It has worked, but time up, surely.
Press release of the day
A good, if self-serving, statement here from the Campaign for Real Ale about the C02 shortage.
CAMRA notes that real ale is less reliant on C02 in the first place. So your tasteless fizzy lager is going to be off, my proper pint of bitter will be fine.
Result.
