Chocolate bankers
THE disturbing news from the Bank of England is that it has run out of gold and bank-notes. A reader writes to complain: `For several years I have bought chocolate in the form of banknotes or gold bars from the Bank's museum shop. Calling there this week, I found neither available, they had run out of banknotes several weeks ago and, after telephoning higher authority, the lady on the till told me that no more would be in before Christmas. I wondered if the Monetary Policy Committee was trying its teeth on chocolate money before moving on to the real thing?' My inquiries show that the Bank has gone off the chocolate gold standard. Consequently, its shop will no longer sell soft-centred ingots. As for the banknotes — which, appropriately enough, are mint-flavoured — there has been a sudden sharp contraction in the money supply, and the days are past when the Bank could be asked to get us out of trouble by printing more chocolate. Person- ally, I think it has all gone on the directors' biscuits.
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