Serious business

摘要

In the few days before Lent the stereo-type of Germans as a people without humour takes a thorough pasting. In the Rhineland and the south, it's carnival time. The streets are filled with parades of elaborate floats, there's lots to eat and drink and nobody does a stroke of work. Men in ties are liable to have them snipped off by scissor-toting women. On Ash Wednesday order is restored. This year the European Central Bank (ECB), in Frankfurt, did its bit for renewed sobriety. On Thursday March 2nd its mainly male policymakers tightened their (intact) neckwear and raised interest rates by a quarter-point, to 2.5%.