Almost one in ten adults in Britain do not use mainstream financial services. Most of them are not in paid employment. However, most people without paid work have accounts. Two hypotheses have been put forward: (i) reluctance by financial institutions to serve low-income customers; and (ii)...

This paper highlights the difficulties that policy-makers face when trying to predict economic activity.

In the English county of Cornwall the annual invading army of tourists which are its biggest source of income are referred to unkindly as ‘emmets’, an ancient word for ‘ants’. Yet the observed behaviour of real life ants suggests that the locals have instinctively hit on a model which...