Last week, the Conference Board announced that European labour productivity growth had overtaken that of the US. The news that growth in Europe in 2006 was 1.5 per cent against 1.4 per cent across the Atlantic was the main headline in this paper.

While the reputation of economists has been in decline, naive acceptance and popular distribution of economic statistics has grown. Figures such as these are taken at face value, as if they were established facts. Markets tremble when an announcement differs from expectations by as little as a single decimal point.