A positive forecast - Signs that justify some optimism

The late Brian Lenihan’s first-green-shoots-of-recovery claim made nearly three years ago was so disastrously off the mark that today most positive crystal ball gazing is reluctantly embraced like a long lost but still slightly malodorous great aunt.

Cheerleading is not what it used to be, especially the plainly tribal kind. The kind of palaver that once silenced a discontented electorate — or cumann — is no longer as effective as it once was. However, the resurgence of Fianna Fáil suggests that there is still a market for some of it, no matter how forgetful you might need to be to pretend you can believe it.

Even with that kind of reticence this morning’s modestly upbeat outlook from Davy’s stockbrokers is as good a way as any to begin the week on a positive note.